Driving India Towards A Safer And More Sustainable Future

The Scrappage Policy is a golden opportunity to reshape the future of India's commercial vehicle industry, writes Satyakam Arya Managing Director & CEO, of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles.

- Satyakam Arya

India is the world's fifth-largest economy with a GDP of USD 3.89 trillion. S&P says we're on track to become number three by 2030. The automotive industry is one of India's largest sectors, and the CV segment's growth has been instrumental in achieving this. According to a 2022 analysis by NITI Aayog and RMI, India currently transports around 4.6 billion tonnes of freight annually. Factors like urbanisation, population growth, the expansion of e-commerce and rising income levels drive this demand. As these trends continue, road freight movement is expected to rise to 9.6 trillion tonnes by 2050.

Currently, around 70 per cent of road freight is transported by India's four million trucks, mostly Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCVS). As the amount of road freight continues to grow, the number of trucks is expected to more than quadruple to approximately 17 million by 2050. But what does this economic growth mean for the environment? Even today, trucks are already responsible for about half of the well-to-wheel CO2 emissions from on-road transport. Most of the trucks on the road are older vehicles that do not conform to the latest emission standard, Bharat Stage VI (equivalent to Euro6).

The government has therefore introduced a Vehicle Scrapping Policy which aims to phase out unfit commercial vehicles over 15 years old. Under this policy, vehicles must pass fitness and emission tests; if they fail, they are classified as End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVS) and must be scrapped. The aim is to reduce pollution, improve road safety, and stimulate the automobile industry by encouraging the purchase of newer, cleaner vehicles.