What will India do with its old vehicles?

Abstract

Given that India will possess an extremely large number of aging vehicles, up to 20 million, by 2025, which will cause significant pollution and environmental damage, this document offers a set of suggestions for an efficient scrappage policy. India can exploit the introduction of BSVI emissions standards and the electric vehicle program as an opportunity to modernize the fleet with significantly cleaner vehicles. Vehicles with BSVI engines are designed to produce 35 times less particulate matter than those with BS-I engines. Enhanced producer responsibility and legally binding rules can be obtained by improving current end-of-life guidelines for manufacturers, which demand vehicles to be constructed in a way that allows for a minimum of 80–85 percent recyclability and prohibit toxic metals like lead, mercury, cadmium, or hexavalent chromium. Furthermore, environmentally sound vehicle scrappage infrastructure should be built on a national scale to enable the secure disposal of waste and the recovery of materials for recycling, such as steel, aluminum, and plastic. – AI-generated abstract.