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India: Tata Motors’ 3.8L NA SGI CNG engine receives BS6 certification
In the run-up to its BS6 preparations, Tata Motors announced that it has received BS6 Type Approval certificate for its 3.8L NA SGI CNG engine from ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India). It is the first OEM in India to achieve BS6 certification for a CNG engine for commercial vehicles. This certification includes meeting the tailpipe mass emissions as well as compliance to On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) norms as mandated by government regulation.
Rajendra Petkar, Chief Technology Officer of Tata Motors said, “This BS6 engine certification milestone has been achieved with intense design and development focus, by leveraging in-house capabilities and those of our technology partners. We have worked hard to build a leadership position in the market by providing our customers with economical, best-in-class natural gas vehicle products in the commercial vehicle market and this development of BS6 solution will further reinforce our market offering.”
The 3.8 NA SGI CNG engine is a naturally aspirated engine i.e. it does not need a turbocharger. It produces a maximum power of 85 Ps @ 2500 RPM with a torque of 285 Nm @ 2500 RPM. This combustion occurs at stoichiometric conditions in the engine. It engine comes with sequential gas injection technology, pioneered by Tata Motors in India. Exhaust after-treatment system featuring three-way catalytic converter reduces pollutants below limits mandated by regulation.
The 3.8 NA SGI CNG engine will power 4T to 9T GVW buses and trucks such as 407, 709 and 909 (existing BS4 versions), which are already very popular models in the market, with the best-in-class fuel efficiency. Truck applications also include water tankers.
BS6 norms will come into force in India from 1 April, 2020. The upgrade from BS4 to BS6 is a complex engineering, a challenge that demands not only pushing the technological advancements to the limits, but also calls for a turnaround of the infrastructure and facilities required for this development, which is highly capital intensive with long lead execution periods. In this regard, a state of the art “Emission Test Facility” has been installed at the company’s Power Systems Engineering Division (PSE), in its Engineering Research Centre (ERC) in Pune.
