Ministry of Power Notifies CAFE-III Norms, Tightening Car Fuel Benchmarks by 16.7% to 2031-32

2 October 2026National

The Ministry of Power notified the third phase of Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE-III) norms on 2 October, six months after its April 2026 draft. They run from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2032 and require fleet-average fuel consumption for new passenger vehicles to fall from 3.996 litres per 100 km in 2027-28 to 3.3273 litres per 100 km by 2031-32, a tightening of about 16.7 per cent. The reference kerb weight rises from 1,082 kg to 1,229 kg. Cleaner powertrains earn 'super credits' in the fleet average: 3x for battery electric vehicles, 2.5x for plug-in hybrids and 1.6x for strong hybrids.

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CAFE norms were introduced in India in 2017 under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 and are administered by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) | The Ministry of Power is the nodal ministry for CAFE norms, while Bharat Stage emission standards come under MoRTH | BEE, set up in 2002, also runs the Star Labelling and PAT schemes

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