Diesel vehicles of Tata, Toyota, Hyundai, Mahindra, Eicher, Kia and Ashok Leyland face breakdown problems after bringing in Euro 6 standard engines

The Head of Bhutan Cancer Society, Karma Tobgay, was delighted to receive a brand-new Toyota Hilux as a grant from Japan. He planned to use the vehicle for official work, including extensively travelling around the country for advocacy and awareness work on cancer.

However, barely a year after using the vehicle, it gave warning lights indicating engine oil issues, which required visits to the car service center to fix his vehicle.

During a community awareness work in Phuentsholing, his Hilux broke down due to the overheating in Kharbandhi with the coolant even boiling and coming out. What should have been a 4-hour journey back to Thimphu, instead took 12 hours, as he drove for a few minutes and then rested a few minutes to let the engine cool.

His Toyota Hilux was the latest Euro 6 or BS 6 which is less polluting, and is the only type of car engine allowed for import from January 2022 under the Vehicle Import Standards issued by the National Environment Commission (NEC).

The difference with all the Euro 6 standard engine is that it has two new components to control air pollution.

The first, is an Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) valve, which recycles certain amount of the exhaust gas and pushes it back into the engine which reduces fuel consumption and lowers the production of noxious fumes.

The second addition is a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) near the exhaust that filter out the noxious particles.

The Toyota workshop under STCBL found that there were issues with both the EGR and the DPF. The EGR was overheating and particles were building up, which in turn impacted the engine performance. The DPF was getting clogged up.

Sonam would have to spend Nu 50,000 to replace the EGR.  He said he has ordered an electronic device online to be able to clean the EGR after seeing the Toyota staff using it.

Karma’s problem is not just restricted to his vehicle or Toyota, but it is a common and recurring problem across major vehicle dealers selling the same standard of Euro 6 engine.

The Toyota brand is synonymous with reliability, but of the 123 various vehicles STCBL sold in this engine category, like Hilux, Fortuner, etc., around 98 units have come back with similar problems.

The main buyers have been government agencies and so Dzongdas, Dzongrabs, and even the RBP, among others, have faced issues with the vehicles.

The Tata brand of vehicles have also been hit hard by the same EGR and DPF issues. STCBL sold 175 various Tata vehicles of the Euro 6 standards, but around 96 percent of them developed various problems related to EGR and DPF.

Samden Vehicles which also sells Tata vehicles has seen same problem as STCBL, as Samden said they sold around 60 Tata vehicles of various types and around 60 percent of them came back with the EGR and DPF issues with the problems, mainly found in Tipper trucks and buses.

Ashok Leyland sold around 30 trucks, and almost all of them had minor issues with EGR and DPF, and with 2 cases where even the engine is being replaced.

STCBL sold 164 units of Euro 6 category Eicher vehicles till date, and according to STCBL around 60 percent of them developed similar issues.

Zimbi which also sold Eicher vehicles has faced similar issues.

Perhaps the most public and well-known face of this problem is Hyundai’s ISUZU D-Max vehicles, many of which can be seen lying outside the Hyundai showroom and service center or at workshops.

Hyundai said it sold a total of 500 such vehicles, and it said it does not have full data of how many developed issues, as not all may come to Hyundai, Thimphu for repairs, especially in eastern Bhutan or other parts of the country.

They said from the ones that did turn up in Thimphu for repairs, it was around 30 to 35 percent of the total vehicles sold coming with EGR problems.

Hyundai said in the case of the four-wheel drive version the main problem was DPF.

Even the sturdy Mahindra Bolero has not been spared, as the company said that of the 800 vehicles of Euro 6 category sold, around 15 to 20 percent developed EGR and DPF problems.

Mahindra said they flushed the software and put in new software and made some repairs and that had helped manage the issue.

Kia Motors has faced similar issues in its 25 diesel Seltos and Sonnets that have been sold.

While Euro 6 standard diesel engines have taken a hit, there are no similar issues for Euro 6 petrol cars.

Zimdra said that none of its Euro 6 petrol cars faced an issue, and the same applies for Kia, Hyundai and others selling petrol vehicles. Honda claimed that so far only Euro 6 petrol vehicles were sold, and so there are no issues.

Mitsubishi has had a close shave as it did not supply Euro 6 diesel cars, and it could cancel its Euro 6 orders in time.

Ugen Trading said it sold around 30 Bharat Benz trucks but had no complaints so far.

The impact of such problems has been so bad that there is a huge drop in the re-sale values of these Euro 6 diesel engine cars, including even the all-weather Toyota Hilux, which would have been unthinkable in the past.

The big question, now, is the cause of the problem that is impacting so many vehicles across different brands.

An official from STCBL said that when it comes to the EGR, the probable cause is the quality of the fuel. This same sentiment was also echoed by all the vehicle dealers that the paper contacted. 

The official said that Bhutan is supposed to get Euro 6 fuel, which is supposed to have impurities of only 10 parts per million (ppm) whereas it is 50 ppm for Euro 4, 350 ppm for Euro 3 and 500 ppm for Euro 2.

However, he said impurities in the fuel are impacting the EGR, and he said that when parts were sent to Japan for repair and testing reports came back saying the fuel is below Euro 6 quality.

The STCBL official said that impurities heat up the EGR and the coolant comes into play, but as the heat goes up, there are holes and then engine oil leaks out and some coolant even enters the engine and in extreme cases the entire engine seizes up.

The official said that people are also supposed to use the AdBlue fluid, but this is apparently not widely available in Bhutan, as it is in India’s negative exports list since it contains urea.

The STCBL official claimed that diesel fuel supplied by STCBL is Euro 6 and so they advise clients to use only STCBL fuel for these cars.

In the case of the DPF problem, the STCBL official said that here the issue is that the DPF should ideally be burning away the impurities when the cars travel at 60 to 70 km for around 30 minutes without stopping, but in Bhutan, there is no terrain where such driving is possible at that high speed.

He said as a result, the soot and impurities accumulate.

The solution here is to put the car in neutral and press the regeneration button, and let it be for around 30 minutes.

The official said factors, like high altitude and less air pressure must also be impacting these vehicles.

In what may also be a cause behind the problem, the STCB official said that in the past Toyota essentially sold Euro 0 vehicles which did not have EGR and DPF, and so no matter how bad the fuel was, nobody felt the impact as it was essentially spewed out, but overnight it had to upgrade to Euro 6 standards, and this is where the diesel vehicles are struggling.

The prime suspect of the vehicle dealers is the fuel quality.

Here, an official from the Department of Trade said that from last year the Indian Public Sector Undertaking companies had given certificates and even verbally confirmed that there are only supplying Euro 6 fuel to Bhutan, like in Nepal and India.

The official said that even if some pump in Bhutan put in kerosene in the fuel, the fuel would still remain as Bharat 6.

The official, in response to questions, by the reporter said that a committee does physical fuel inspections including the quantity, but right now neither the Trade Department nor the Bhutan Standards Bureau has the equipment and expertise to test the fuel quality whether at the border or at the pumps.

Faced with the above issues, the vehicle dealers met with the Bhutan Construction and Transport Authority and NEC and the issues were discussed. Some transporters also approached the NEC with their issues.

NEC on 20 May 2024 approved the import of Euro 4 vehicle standards till April 2027.

However, unless Bhutan can get to the bottom of what is causing so many vehicles to fail across different companies, then it can impact the transport sector, government transport and vehicle dealers.

The solution, for now, maybe to allow Euro 4 standard imports, but car companies are phasing out such vehicles.

If nothing is done then Bhutan may soon face a future where it cannot import diesel cars, SUVs, trucks and buses.

Another major issue is that failure of Euro 6 diesel engines in Bhutan will hamper our own efforts to reduce vehicular pollution and improve air quality, especially in urban areas.