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The following article will guide you about how to improve the fuel efficiency of vehicles in India.
How to Improve the Fuel Efficiency of Trucks:
The potential for improving the fuel efficiency of trucks in India is considerable. The truck fleets in India are older, smaller and less technologically sophisticated, less fuel efficient – than those found in U.S, Europe and other developed countries. The size of a truck affects its overall fuel efficiency. Small trucks generally require more fuel than large trucks to perform the same task.
Most of the Indian trucks are rated around 10 tons compared to 40 ton trucks in U.S. Recent World Bank studies indicate that fuel required to carry one metric ton per km. in Indian and Chinese trucks are almost double that of the fuel consumed in U.S trucks. The poor high way infrastructure in India and many developing countries constrains the use of larger trucks.
Improved carrying capacity and fuel efficiency cannot be implemented without corresponding improvements in roads. Most truck manufacturers in India were building till 1990s, diesel engines comparable in technical sophistication and fuel efficiency to those built in U.S and Europe in the 1960s. This situation is however slowly changing. The large- truck manufacturers in India now offer Japanese and American collaboration engines with improved fuel efficiency.
Technology alone may have a limited role in improving energy efficiency of trucks in developing countries like India. Equipment’s like turbo chargers, larger vehicles, aerodynamic improvements require smooth, uncongested high ways.
Diesel vehicle efficiency drops sharply under conditions of varying load and speed, normally found on Indian roads. India is now concentrating on developing National and State highways and in the next 5 or 6 years, the fuel efficiency of trucks may improve significantly.
How to Improve the Fuel Efficiency of Cars:
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The most popular car in India until recently had fuel consumption about twice that of a comparably sized Japanese or German car. The energy efficiency of cars produced in China is similarly low. But new automotive technologies have been introduced in both the countries in recent years, increasing the fuel efficiency of domestically manufactured cars. The energy efficiency of most of the recent cars could be improved in a cost effective manner.
The Indian car manufacturers were greatly benefited from readily available technologies from outside. The electronic control of spark timing and idle speed found in the vehicles of developed countries was adopted on most of the Indian cars at a cost of about U.S $ 75-100, and the fuel efficiency improved by 4-5 per cent.
Several manufacturers, including Maruti Suzuki, Toyota, Hyundai, General Motors, Honda, Ford, Volkswagen, and Volvo have built manufacturing facilities in India and are constantly updating technology. Some of these vehicle manufacturers have built prototype cars in their original places which can offer 20 to 25 kms per litre.
These vehicles use direct injection diesel engines, a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), and plastics and aluminium to reduce weight. While some of these vehicles are not in production in India, the long term technical potential for fuel efficiency improvements is large and improvements made by them could come to India soon.
How to Improve the Fuel Efficiency of Two and Three Wheelers:
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Two and three wheelers are widely used in India and many Asian countries as an inexpensive mode of personal transportation for a growing urban middle class. In India, two and three wheelers consume a large fraction of total gasoline. Two and three wheeler engines are designed as either two-stroke or four — stroke.
Till recently, most of these vehicles had two-stroke engines, since manufacturing these engines is simple and inexpensive. They also produce more power for a given displacement and require little maintenance. However fuel efficiency from two stroke engines is 20 to 25 percent lower and emissions are about 10 times higher compared to four stroke engines of equal power.
The problems of the two-stroke engine are made even worse when used on a three wheeler vehicle. Such vehicles are under-powered, so the engine is usually operated near wide-open throttle. Two stroke engines operating under these conditions produce very high emissions (sometimes as high as a truck or a bus) and have poor fuel economy; with fuel consumption comparable to that of some small cars.
Improved technologies are available that can drastically reduce emissions and fuel consumption of two stroke two wheelers though at some cost to the user. Improved carburetors and electronic ignition can improve fuel efficiency by 10 to 15 percent.
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Replacing two-stroke engines with four stroke engines increase fuel efficiency by about 25 percent. This technology costs U.S $ 60-100. Based on the existing gasoline prices of about Rs 40 per litre, this investment can be recouped in less than two years, even without considering environmental benefits.
How to Improve the Fuel Efficiency of Passenger Buses:
Buses are the back bone of passenger transportation in India and other developing countries particularly for low income groups living in urban as well as rural areas. A variety of technologies are available to improve the energy efficiency of buses- turbochargers, automatic timing advances, lighter frames (using aluminium instead of steel), etc.,
While the specific fuel consumption of bus engines is now less than 150 grams per bhp hour, it was around 200 grams per bhp hour during 1990s before better technology engines were used. The engines which are being manufactured in collaboration with Hino of Japan and Cummins of U.S have lower specific fuel consumption. Fuel conservation in buses is constrained more significantly by operating and driving conditions than in other types of vehicles.
According to Mashelkar Committee, “the bus/truck body design in India remain primitive, they are heavy and are built using outdated technology. The body should be built either by the vehicle manufacturers themselves or the design and technology should be licensed to subsidiary body builders”.
Chassis of Indian buses are similar to those of trucks and hence very heavy. For passenger buses, chassis need to be redesigned as the present passenger bus design has several disadvantages. According to Mashelkar committee “the passenger bus bodies remain technologically primitive”.