New Delhi: India plans to notify Bharat Stage VII emission norms this fiscal year for rollout in 2030, according to two people aware of the development. The move will mark the next phase of the country’s effort to curb vehicular pollution and align with evolving global standards. The stiffer norms may, however, entail fresh investments from automakers and could push up vehicle prices.
Prior to this, India the Bharat Stage VI norms in 2020, aimed at reducing vehicular emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.
The new norms are expected to impose stricter limits on emissions, while also introducing advanced requirements for real-world emission monitoring, onboard diagnostics and vehicle durability, said one of the people cited above, a government official who requested anonymity.
For the rollout, the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has started inter-ministerial discussions and is holding consultations with automobile manufacturers, fuel retailers and testing agencies to assess technological readiness and implementation timelines, this official said.
The shift to tighter emission norms assumes importance, as India is the world’s third largest automobile market by sales, with over 28.3 million new vehicles sold in FY26, government’s Vahan portal data showed.
“The plan is to notify new BS VII standards in the current fiscal itself while providing time till 2030 to the industry to start rolling out BS VII compliant vehicles,” said the first person quoted above. “The rollout may be advanced in metro cities if the auto industry is ready with the prototype of new greener vehicles earlier.”
Officials said the transition to BS VII would help address urban air quality concerns and support India’s broader environmental commitments, as Indian cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai routinely face concerns over worsening air quality, significantly due to polluting road transport.
According to the second person quoted above, the new emission standards would require substantial investments from automakers in engine technologies, emission control systems and testing infrastructure.
This could also require more time for the industry to prepare, and the proposed timeline could be extended by a year.
“The implementation deadline is being considered for extension to 2030-31 fiscal year, as industry executives have sought adequate lead time to localize components and minimize cost increases for consumers,” said this second person.
The new regulatory framework will broadly follow the Euro 7 standards, adopted by the European Union, but will be adapted to suit Indian road conditions and fuel quality, said the first person cited above.
The Euro 7 norms will be implemented for different categories of vehicles from November 2026 through 2027. In September, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari had said at an industry event that its auto emissions norms with global timelines.
The move towards BS VII emission norms is a “logical next step” in India’s efforts to tackle persistent air quality challenges and align with evolving global standards, said Saket Mehra, partner at consulting firm Grant Thornton Bharat.
“While BS VI delivered meaningful reductions, BS VII is expected to go further by tightening real-world emissions and ensuring vehicles remain compliant over their full operating life, which is critical given the rising vehicle density in Indian cities,” Mehra added.
India should also focus on reducing the number of older vehicles on the road, said Arun Malhotra, an auto industry veteran and former head of a Japanese automobile firm’s Indian operations. He added that while tighter emission norms are important for decarbonizing the auto sector, they will raise costs for manufacturers, which are likely to be passed on to consumers, he said.
Industry estimates suggest the new norms may push up manufacturing cost by ₹30,000-1,00,000 per vehicle, depending on the segment and the extent of technological upgrades required for the specific model. This may eventually reflect on the vehicle price tag for consumers.
This rising cost could put pressure on automakers to either discontinue certain models that are too expensive to upgrade or push consumers towards cleaner alternatives such as strong hybrids or electric vehicles (EVs), said a sector expert, requesting anonymity.
However, while earlier emission norm transitions required fuel refining upgrades, the same may not be needed in this round, experts said.
“Unlike the shift from BS IV to BS VI in 2020, which required oil refineries to undertake extensive upgrades to supply cleaner fuels, comparable changes to fuel infrastructure may not be necessary for the transition to BS-VII,” said a former executive with a state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL), on the condition of anonymity.
To comply with BS VII norms, manufacturers may need to localize some technology components to cut costs and adapt solutions to Indian driving conditions, said Ashim Sharma, senior partner and business unit head at Nomura Research Institute Consulting and Solutions, India.
“In reducing the wear and tear from brake pads and tyres, which lead to brake dust and microparticles being emitted from EVs, manufacturers may have to incur additional costs apart from ensuring the minimum service life requirements for vehicle batteries,” he said.
This comes at a time when India has moved to using E20 petrol (a mix of 80% petrol and 20% ethanol), a cleaner alternative.
Queries on the shift emailed to the ministries of road transport and highways, heavy industries, petroleum and natural gas, state-run oil refiners (Indian Oil Corp, HPCL, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd), and automakers (Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai Motor India) on Monday remained unanswered until press time. Maruti Suzuki chairman R.C. Bhargava and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers declined to comment.
