The most heated talks in the automotive industry backfiring many of the automobile manufacturers is raging over the petition which has ceased the sale and registration of BS III vehicles starting from April 1, 2017. The supreme court has given a very supporting statement towards the general interest of the public and said that the public health is more concerned rather than commercial interest. Even the center has supported the automotive community to give leniency in the matter of banning the old emission vehicles as the stock complied is over a million. And while asking from the industry itself, the statement says that the deadline was meant to cease the manufacturing of BS III vehicles and not to ban the sales and registrations.
Vinod K. Dasari, President, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said that “Auto Industry has been ready with BS4 manufacturing since 2010. However, the sale of BS4 vehicles was not possible, nationwide, due to lack of BS4 fuel. Auto Industry is law abiding and is in full compliance with the emission norms set by Government that stipulates date of "Manufacturing". The historical implementation of emission norms also reinforces the current law that stipulates "manufacturing". Running a BS4 vehicle with BS3 fuel can cause severe problems to some vehicles.” He also alleged of unstable policy and said that “While no one pushed for BS4 fuel availability for 7 years to change over faster, this sudden decision - just a few days before the changeover - is rather unfortunate as it causes undue stress on the entire industry, and causes loss of jobs. Auto Industry, anywhere in the world, requires a stable and predictable policy which allows for long-term planning and investments.”
Many giant industrialists have come up with their statements in which TATA Motors has sorted out some concern over the matter, “The decision by Hon'ble Supreme Court to ban sale of all BS III vehicles from April 1, 2017, is an unexpected and unprecedented move that will have a material impact on the entire automotive industry, OEM's and dealer network. The industry had planned the current transition into BSIV in line with the accepted past practice of stopping production of earlier emission standard vehicles effective from the transition date. In the context of this previous experience, this decision by the apex court is a 'penalty' to the entire automotive industry, We have been producing BSIV compliant vehicles across our entire product range of passenger and commercial vehicles and are fully BSIV ready with effect from April 1, 2017.”
In the same league, Vinod K Dasari, MD, and CEO, Ashok Leyland also said some words over the issue, “Ashok Leyland has been making BS-IV vehicles since 2010 and has sufficient capability and capacity to make BS-IV vehicles. However, since BS IV Commercial Vehicles cannot run properly on BS III fuel - and such fuel is not available nationwide - our customers continued to buy BS III vehicles. Given the current demand, the majority of the vehicles in the pipeline have already been sold. Some more will be sold in the next couple of days where we have customer orders. Of the little inventory that we expect to remain beyond this, we will export them to other markets where we have a significant presence and still operate on BS III norms. Finally, for any other vehicles still leftover, the Company confirms that it will be able to easily upgrade them to BS IV at minimal cost.”
Erich Nesselhauf, Managing Director, and CEO, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles said that “that industry interests must go together with the interests of the society at large", The BS-IV standard will bring much-needed improvements in terms of air quality, to the benefit of the people and the environment.”