What is BS 6 in Bikes & Cars and Why is it costly? - Comparison between BS - IV and BS - VI Norms

Everyone who planned to buy a new bike/car, since April 2020 would have heard of the term “BS 6” more than once from the sales executives in showrooms or digital sale platforms. This article exclusively aims to brief about BS-VI norms and its impact on the environment as well as cost.

What is BS 6 (BS-VI)?

The full form of BS-VI is Bharat Stage Emission Standards – VI. It is the standard formulated by Central Pollution Control board (CPCB) and Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change (MOEFCC) to limit the emissions of air pollutants from bikes, cars, and other engines.

Bharat stage emission standards (BS) were developed based on European emission control regulations (EURO).  Similarly, BS 6 was developed with EURO - 6 as a reference.

The evolution of Bharat Standards with the year of enforcement is mentioned in the infographic below

Why was BS – V skipped?

As we could observe from the above infographics, BS-VI has been implemented directly before the implementation of BS – V.  Central government in the year 2016 made the decision of skipping BS - V.

In order to easily understand the reason behind skipping BS-VI, let us assume a practical situation eg: Assume a T-20 cricket match between India and Australia, Australia has won the toss, batted first, set out a target of 173 in 20 overs for India to win, and at the end of 10 overs of chase Indian team is still at a position of 72/4 requiring 101 of 10 overs at a run rate of 10.1. With the required run rate spiking up, the batsmen out in the middle have to accelerate their innings in order to put their team in the winning position right.

Similarly, the skipping of BS-V is also just the government decision to catch up with the European emission control regulations to improve air quality due to the lag created in the implementation of BS-IV.

Why is BS-VI needed?

With the spiking of numbers of bikes and cars usage in the metropolitan areas due to urbanization, the levels of pollutants in the atmosphere are also continuously increasing, causing a lot of  respiratory and cardiovascular health problems to people of all age groups eg. Delhi NCR during winter Season.

To limit the pollutant levels from further increasing, environmental enthusiasts and organizations had to hold one end tightly. As we all know, the government cannot prohibit the sale and purchase of bikes and cars since India is a democratic country. The only solution for this is the source control of pollutants is by setting out standards that have to be met by automobile manufacturers at regular intervals.

Allowable Pollutants Emission limits of BS-IV Version and BS-VI version have been illustrated in the table below.

Allowable Pollutants Emission limits
Fuel Type	Pollutant Gases	BS6 (BSVI)	BS4 (BSIV)
Petrol	Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) Limit in mg	60 mg	80 mg
	Particulate Matter (PM) Limit in mg/km	4.5 mg/Km	0 mg
Diesel Fuel Vehicle	Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) Limit	80mg	250 mg
	Particulate Matter (PM) Limit	4.5 mg/km	25 mg
	HC + NOx	170 mg/km	300 mg

On comparison of both the standards we could easily understand that with every new BS standard implementation, the pollutant emission levels are reduced significantly.

Why are BS-VI bikes and cars costly?

As we all know, most of the technological advancements do not come free of cost, likewise advancement of the engines also incur a monetary investment for the bike and car manufacturing companies.  Moreover, the sudden jump from BS-IV to BS-VI has led to a rapid rise in the price of the bikes and cars.

Pros and Cons of BS-VI Bikes and Cars

Pros

• Less Pollution. 
• Improved Air Quality. 
• Low Respiratory and Cardio Vascular Issues leading to improved health leading to less medical expenses

Cons

• Only cons of buying a new BS-VI bike or car is the 10 – 15% increase in the total budget due to an increase in price

Additional Information

• Supreme Court has mandated the ban on sale and registration of BS-IV bikes and cars from 1st April 2020.  
• Even though the Supreme Court has mandated the ban on sale and registration of BS-IV Vehicles, dealers and manufacturers have illegally sold, by exploiting this corona lockdown crisis. 
• Supreme court has now instigated a probe into this scam. 
• Check Some latest varieties of BS-VI cars in India at CarDekho 
• Check Some latest varieties of BS-VI bikes in India at Bikewale

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