New Delhi, September 30 (IANS). The government on Wednesday notified new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE-3) rules for vehicle manufacturers. Also, the separate concession proposed for small petrol cars has been removed.
The rules notified by the Ministry of Power will come into effect from April 2027 and will remain in effect till March 2032.
However, the central government had last year proposed a rebate of 3 grams per kilometer for petrol cars weighing up to 909 kg.
Many major car manufacturers opposed this exemption.
Furthermore, the final rules do not provide any separate exemption for cars weighing less than 909 kg.
Instead, the government has changed the formula used to calculate a manufacturer's fleet-wide carbon dioxide emissions target.
In the September 2025 draft, the weight of the reference vehicle was increased from 1,170 kg to 1,229 kg. At the same time, the annual weight adjustment has also been kept less in the final rules.
These changes provide some relief to the light vehicle fleet, while the targets for the heavy vehicle fleet have been tightened.
Under the final formula, the FY28 emissions target for a 909 kg car is around 82.8 grams CO2 per kilometre, compared to around 76 grams in the September 2025 draft. But for a 2,500 kg vehicle, the target under the new final formula is around 142.4 grams, compared to around 151.4 grams in the earlier formula.
Additionally, the final rules of Café-3 also provide for incentives for clean fuel vehicles through a super-credit system.
One battery electric vehicle will be considered equivalent to three vehicles when counting the fleet performance of any automaker.
The same 3x factor will also apply to range-extended electric vehicles.
Plug-in hybrids and strong hybrids running on flex-fuel will get a power factor of 2.5 times, while the strong hybrid will get a power factor of 1.6 times. Flex-fuel vehicles will get a factor of 1.1 times.
Along with this, credit-debit system has also been introduced in the rules.
Manufacturers that outperform their emissions targets will receive credits, while those that fall short will receive debits.
–IANS
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