Maruti Suzuki to stop production of BSIV models by December 2019

Maruti Suzuki is aiming to wind up production of all Bharat Stage 4 or BS4 complaint cars by December 2019, NDTV reported. Only one BS4 model is likely to continue with production in 2020 and that too for a very limited period of time depending on the demand of the particular model., the report added. Earlier, the Centre in an affidavit to the Supreme Court had told that the sale and manufacture of BS-VI non-compliant vehicles in India should not be allowed from April 1, 2020, as it would lessen environmental benefits to be accrued from using cleaner BS-VI fuel.

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The ministry told a bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta that sale and manufacture of Bharat Stage VI non-compliant vehicles from April 1, 2020, would have an adverse effect since investment of Rs 28,000 crore has already been made for having a cleaner BS-VI fuel.

However, Maruti Suzuki has not revealed any information on the sales of BSVI compliant models but according to the earlier official statements, it will be meeting the deadline ahead of the time. 

“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,” Auto Car Potential quoted RC Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki India as saying.

“There will be just one model which we will not be able to be converted to BS VI by December 2019, and it will be spilled over to the next calendar, but we are trying to expedite that as well,” Bhargava added.

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Bhargava said that there is no problem in a BS VI petrol vehicle running on BS IV fuel, but the same is not possible in case of a diesel. He explained that in case of Maruti Suzuki, a BS VI diesel is roughly going to command a premium of Rs 250,000 over its BS VI petrol counterpart, and the onus would completely lie on the end customer to decide which engine option he wants to buy, Auto Car Potential reported.

"Also, by that time, we will start equipping the BS VI petrol cars with strong-hybrid systems by leveraging our Suzuki-Toyota agreement, which will serve to improve the fuel efficiency performance of a vehicle by up to 30 percent, and will help us meet our CAFE targets,” Bhargava said.