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Performance Characteristics

Driver Preference for 2-Stroke vs 4-Stroke Engines

The owners of 2-stroke engine auto-rickshaws are fighting hard against the movement towards 4-stroke engines. They do not like 4-stroke for the following reasons:

  • The initial cost of a 3-wheeler with a 4-stroke engine is higher.
  • It is more complicated to maintain and the parts cost is higher.
  • The vehicle acceleration is less with a 4-stroke engine.
  • 4-stroke engine heat is greater.

The resistance is such that when Bajaj cancelled 2-stroke production they were forced by the market to re-introduce them. The popularity of 2-stroke engine vehicles is also the likely reason that the manufacturers seemingly strongly defend lenient PUC standards, because 2-stroke emissions are virtually universally higher than those of 4-stroke.

Source: Assessment of the Pollution Under Control Progam in India and Recommendations for Improvement

TSR Benefits

“A TSR is preferable as a taxi to a car since on average it carries the same number of people, takes one-third the parking area and one half the road space while moving. Weighing one-third of a car, it wears out the road much less, has less tyre/rubber use, and requires one third of national resources to produce it. All this reduces indirect pollution. As TSRs have a small engine they pollute much less per passenger than a car if the engine is as specified. Because of the small size of the engine, they can’t go faster than 50 km/h, thus keeping to urban speed limits, controlling others’ speeds, and reducing the number of fatal accidents among pedestrians and bicyclists as compared to cars.”

http://www.india-seminar.com/2007/579/579_dunu_roy.htm

Regulatory Institutional and Policy

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