Soon, cars to have fuel efficiency star rating!

The International Centre for Automotive Technology at Haryana will authorise usage of labels for each vehicle model and its variant.

Carmakers from may have to affix a label mentioning the fuel economy star rating April 1, which will help buyers choose vehicles on the basis of efficiency benchmark.

Also, the government plans to make it mandatory for manufacturers and importers of cars to comply with average fuel consumption standards from April 1, 2017 in addition to display of fuel economy star rating (FESR).

"Every manufacturer or importer of a vehicle...manufactured or imported on or after April 1, 2016 shall affix on the vehicle a FESR label," a draft notification from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has said.

Also it mentions that "Every manufacturer of importer of motor vehicles ... other than quadricycles ... shall on and from April 1, 2017 comply with energy consumption standards ...under the provisions of Energy Conservation Act."

The Ministry in a notification has said that it proposes to amend the rules of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 and has sought objections or suggestions to it.

Once the draft rules are notified, every dealer will have to prominently display the star rating, it said.

"Every dealer dealing in a vehicle ...shall prominently display at the point of sale, the star rating for the different fuel economy levels" calculated as per specifications, it said.

It plans to give one to five star ratings based on fuel economy levels based on parameters like unladen mass in kilogram of a model and petrol equivalent fuel consumption in litre per 100 km of a model.

It said in case of vehicles which are powered with more than one fuel, where one of the fuels is LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or CNG (compressed natural gas), the star rating and display of fuel economy in FESR label shall be based on test conducted on the mode.

International Centre for Automotive Technology, Manesar, Haryana shall authorise usage of labels on the request by manufacturer for each vehicle model and its variant and "charge fee for each label", as per draft notification signed by Joint Secretary, Road Transport and Highways, Abhay Damle.

Many common home appliances and white goods are covered by the Energy Star Rating system at present which means that manufactures must test a product’s energy efficiency to help buyers understand how much it will cost to run.