Tailpipe emission from petrol driven passenger cars

•We measured tailpipe emission from 300 petrol-driven cars of Maruti make in India.•Of several parameters, vehicle age and mileage were found to be the most crucial.•Vehicle will pollute more if it is older, has clocked more mileage.•Vehicle will pollute more, if it possesses a poor inspection/maintenance history.•Vehicle will become non-complaint to the in-use norms after certain age and mileage.

Realizing the dominance of petrol-driven passenger cars of MUL over the fleet of cars in India, a case study of different models of petrol-driven passenger cars of Maruti reporting at an authorized service station of M/s R.K.B.K. Automobiles, Gorakhpur was taken up and the tailpipe emissions along with individual vehicle-related parameters were monitored for idle and fast idle test conditions. The outcome of the study relating to the effect of various vehicle-related parameters on CO and HC emissions of petrol-driven passenger cars of Maruti has led to the useful inferences, which can be used not only for predicting the emission of vehicles with respect to vehicle age and mileage, but also for automobile manufacturing sector to help them produce such environmentally benign petrol-driven passenger cars having long-lasting compliance of pollution control systems with respect to vehicle age and mileage of the petrol-driven passenger cars in the country.