Motorcycle Manufacturers in Iran Circumvent the Law

Carbureted motorcycles produced in Iran are four times more polluting than a car, which is why the Iranian government has banned their production. However, manufacturers have circumvented this law by importing a part from China to continue producing carbureted motorcycles with a new component. According to ISNA, the mandatory production of fuel-injected motorcycles was approved last year as part of a government resolution, and the industry was required to produce fuel-injected motorcycles instead of polluting carbureted ones starting from October 2016. However, by using a component called the injection unit, manufacturers are evading the law. The issue is that the fuel injection system has components, the most important of which are the fuel pump, injector, air sensor, and oxygen sensor. In a complete fuel injection system, the pump, fuel regulator, and injector must be separate, whereas most Iranian manufacturers have imported a system that has a plunger pump. This pump is supposed to simultaneously perform the work of the pump, fuel regulator, and injector, which is known as the unit injection system and is not considered a standard fuel injection system. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Organization, which is legally responsible for overseeing the standard production of fuel-injected motorcycles, defends the production of unit injection engines as devices capable of passing Euro 3 standards. Masoud Zandi, head of the National Center for Air and Climate Change at the Environmental Protection Organization, stated regarding the production of motorcycles with plunger pumps instead of fuel-injected motorcycles: 'The plunger kit used in the motorcycle manufacturing industry is also used in other countries, and the production of this device is not exclusive to Iran. What is important for the Environmental Protection Organization are the emissions tests and exhaust output, which the new motorcycles have succeeded in.' However, some experts have a different opinion. Mehdi Dozandegan, a senior mechanical expert and environmental activist, told ISNA, 'We all know that a plunger pump is not an injector, so the Environmental Protection Organization's interpretation of this law is incorrect. If the law had only referred to Euro 3 standards, the Environmental Protection Organization could have granted time to motorcycle manufacturing companies, but given that the law specifies that Euro 3 standards plus injectors must be met, this organization cannot grant production approval to motorcycles that operate with plunger pumps because a plunger pump is not an injector.' In Tehran alone, approximately 780,000 motorcycles are producing carbon monoxide every day. Nira Pirouzbakht, head of the National Standards Organization, stated that motorcycles are four times more polluting than cars. Most of the motorcycles circulating in the city are carbureted, which are allowed to carry passengers and freight, causing the most damage to the air quality of cities. Currently, there are three million carbureted motorcycles that are four times more polluting than cars circulating across the country. Most of these motorcycles are a well-known model from Honda called the CG 125. This motorcycle has not been produced by Honda for years, but Iranian manufacturers mostly produce this motorcycle using Chinese parts with lower standards than Honda's production.