The Centre has resumed discussions with the automobile industry on implementing stricter fuel-efficiency standards for medium and heavy commercial vehicles from April 2027, according to reports from Mint. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) under the Union power ministry has conveyed its firm stand on compliance with the updated Constant Speed Fuel Consumption (CSFC) testing protocol from this timeline. However, the industry continues to insist that Bharat Vecto, the indigenous testing tool being jointly developed with the government, be widely adopted first before implementing the new norms.
A technical consultation was held on the CSFC norms, with Bharat Vecto remaining the key point of discussion, as reported by Mint. Manufacturers will now share data with the government, which could pave the way for creating a baseline for the CSFC norms and progressively tighter targets for the next five years. The CSFC testing requirements were first enforced in 2022, and the last public draft of the CSFC norms was released more than a year ago in July 2025, amid a similar deadlock between the government and industry over Bharat Vecto.
Bharat Vecto is still being built, and its widespread adoption may take more time, according to experts cited by Mint. Amit Bhatt, India managing director of the International Council on Clean Transportation, explained that from planning to regulatory-grade deployment, a testing tool like VECTO could take anywhere between 5-10 years. The extensive data requirements for building the core model, followed by validating it against real-world operations and tracking data across many vehicle types, represent the biggest time sinks in the development process.
The renewed discussions assume significance as implementing CSFC norms before widespread Bharat Vecto adoption would amount to double regulation, according to industry executives. The country's truck market, valued at $20.18 billion in 2025 and projected to reach $26.11 billion by 2030, according to Mordor Intelligence, will be significantly impacted by these fuel-efficiency standards. Diesel trucks, despite accounting for only about 5% of all registered vehicles, contribute nearly 33% of all transport-related carbon dioxide emissions, making fuel-economy improvements crucial for India's net-zero emissions goal by 2070.
