With the way petrol has been priced, CNG conversion of BS6 car will be 1 way for owners to reduce their fuel bills
A new set of guidelines which will allow aftermarket CNG conversion of a BS6 car is being worked upon by the government.
The rules state that each aftermarket CNG kit will be put through a series of tests to measure emissions. Also, the vehicle’s gradeability will be reviewed while it is being fed with CNG.
Further, the CNG conversion kit for a BS6 car will be evaluated on a dynamometer to make sure that there is no significant power loss when compared to the output resulted when the engine is run on petrol. The parameter has been set to within 5 to 15 percent for now.
In case the aftermarket CNG kit is found to add significant weight to a BS6 car, then the new guidelines suggest that the vehicle could be put through a frontal offset collision test.
This is to evaluate whether the modifications have had any effect on the vehicle’s safety. Once the kit passes the test, the approval will be valid for 3 years’ time, post which the hardware needs to be subjected to a retest.
Once the new rules are in place, it will be possible for owners of BS6 cars to purchase a government approved aftermarket CNG kit and instal it in their motor vehicle.
At present, carmakers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata (which joined the group most recently) will sell people select models with factory-fitted CNG kits that usually command a sizeable premium over their petrol-only counterparts.