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Telco vehicles to be Euro-fit by April 2000

Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Limited today indicated at a possible hike in prices of all its passenger cars, including the much-acclaimed 'Indica', as a result of the cost escalations incurred for making them Euro-II compliant.

Stating that all its vehicles, including the commercial vehicle line-up, would be Euro-II compliant by April 2000, Tata Industries resident director in New Delhi, Sujit Gupta, said the Euro-II Indica would sport a multi-point fuel injection and would be introduced in the domestic market by the year-end.

Other passenger vehicles will also be introduced simultaneously, Gupta said.

However, he refused to divulge details on the extent of price hike. ''The exact prices would be determined by competition and market forces.''

According to J Ramnath, advisor, Telco, the production cost is expected to go up by Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000. ''But how much of this is to be passed on is yet to be decided.''

Besides, the company is also working on ''alternate fuel technology to meet emission norms.''

Telco, upta said, is hopeful of meeting the 60,000 sales target with Indica during the current fiscal. ''We have already achieved 3,500 units per month production target and would be hiking it up to 6,000 units per month by August. At this level, we are also likely to exceed the target.''

Once the company crosses the targetted 60,000 level, it is likely to either call in for fresh bookings or offer the car off-the-shelf, he added. This decision would be reviewed in the last quarter of the 1999-2000 fiscal.

Speaking on the occasion, R V Khadilkar, vice-president, Engineering Research Centre of Telco, said the company has indigenously developed Euro-II compliant engine technology for the complete range of Telco vehicles, which includes Indica, its sports utility vehicle Safari, light and medium commercial vehicles, heavy motor vehciles.

All vehicles manufactured by Telco will be Euro-II compliant by April 2000 -- including commercial vehicles -- due to the company's proactive approach to addressing emission norms. The technology has been developed after two years of intensive research and development at the company's Engineering Research Centre in Pune and Jamshedpur.

Setting the direction for the company, Telco chairman, Ratan N Tata said in a recent communciation to shareholders that ''great investments have been made on Telco's vehicles to ensure that emission levels meet or better mandated norms. In fact, the company has consciously led the domestic industry in complying with international emission standards and, in this context, Telco fully supports and endorses the recent directive of the Supreme Court the imposition of low-emission standards for all vehicles.''

It is this vision which has led Telco to conduct extensive research in the area of emission reduction and increasingly fuel-efficient vehicles. The company has been a market leader in developing indigenous technologies in order to ensure easy availability and cost efficiencies for the end customer.

The Tata group entered into a joint venture with Cummins, the global leader in diesel engine technology, Tata Cummins, in 1993. The joint venture was a pioneering effort, proactively designed to ensure state-of-the-art engine and emission control technology for India, Gupta said.

Speaking on the new development, Gupta, saidm ''We launched the Indica in December 1998 -- designed to meet Euro I norms sixteen months prior to implementation of the then schedule for India 2000 norms (Euro I). As the next step, Tata Cummins was the first to launch Euro I compliant medium and heavy commercial vehicles in January 1999 -- when this was required by April 2000.

"Telco has not been resting on its laurels and has a highely focused, proactive programme in place to ensure that all its vehicles are Euro II compliant, environment friendly, within the shortest possible lead time.''

Khadilkar said the route followed by Telco to reach Euro II compliance with the existing quality of fuel included using high pressure fuel injection pumps, turbo chargers with intercoolers, exhaust recirculation, and catalytic convertors for diesel vehicles and for petrol vehicles, using multi-point fuel injection engines, close loop air fuel ratio control, advanced three-way catalytic convertors, and exhaust air recirculation.

''An important aspect of the technology developed by Telco is that it meets emission norms with diesel that contains 0.25 per cent sulphur -- the current fuel supply in the National Capital Region.''

With the new technology becoming available indigenously, the issue is now cleaner fuel. As emission norms advance, it is critical that technology development is matched by an improvement in fuel quality.

Cleaner diesel, with 0.05 per cent sulphur, and petrol with a reduction in benzene, lead and sulphur content is critical to improve ambient air quality. Current petrol supplies in India have 3 to 5 per cent benzene -- which is much higher than the international norm of one per cent.

In addition, sulphur content in petrol, which is currently up to 0.2 per cent must be reduced to 0.05 per cent to meet tighter emission norms.

Cleaner fuels can reduce emissions by upto 25 per cent in older generation, in-use vehicles, which constitute 90 per cent of the vehicular population. This is one of the most critical issues in the thrust for cleaner air. Combined with the benefit of vehicles designed to meet Euro II norms, clean fuel and regular maintenance can actually reduce pollution by up to 70 per cent.

Telco is India's largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles. It introduced India's first indigenously developed passenger car -- the Indica - in December 1998.

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