The Supreme Court legislation pertaining to automotive manufacturing and emission standards states that from April 1, 2020, only BS VI-compliant vehicles can be registered. While manufacturers are working towards the transition, Maruti Suzuki have announced that they will cease production of BS IV-compliant vehicles in December 2019.
They went on to reveal that they intend to begin production of BS VI-compliant vehicles shortly after the yearly maintenance of their manufacturing plant which is usually scheduled for the last week of the year.
Commenting on the matter, RC Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India, said, ‘Production of our BS-IV vehicles will largely culminate by end of December 2019. These will be models which will, by and large, get converted to BS VI by December 2019. As a result, we will only manufacture BS VI cars from January 2020 but will produce BS IV only if there is a strong demand for any particular model, but that number will be very less.’
Bhargava went on to reveal that in the BS VI-compliant line-up, the diesel-powered cars are going to be priced at a premium over their petrol counterparts. A difference of about Rs 2.5 lakh can be expected. At the same time, petrol-powered variants will feature hybrid systems; a fruit of the Suzuki-Toyota agreement.
Story: Joshua Varghese
