New emission norm kicks out popular cars, brings in clean but costly fuel.
In 13 Indian cities, including the metros, the Bharat Stage (BS) IV emission norms will kick in today, kicking out the iconic Maruti 800, and Skoda’s popular Octavia and Fabia (petrol), besides other cars.
Octavia’s 1.9 TDI Pumpe-Duse engine will not be upgraded to BS IV, and the model will henceforth be available only in BS III cities. Same with Fabia (petrol), though the diesel version will get an upgrade to BS IV and remain on sale across the country.
Among other cars on their way out of the 13 cities are: Fiat’s Palio, which has been witnessing very low sales after the company launched the Grande Punto; Tata’s Indica and Sumo Spacio (Indica Vista will get an upgrade); Ford’s Ikon; and Mitsubishi’s Lancer Cedia. General Motors’ Chevrolet Tavera, for the time being, will not be upgraded to BS IV. The upgrade will take eight or nine months as the technical solutions are taking some time, said Ankush Arora, vice-president (sales and marketing), GM India.
There has been speculation over Hyundai Getz not being produced anymore, but a company spokesperson affirmed that the model will be continued and upgraded to meet BS IV norms. The 13 BS IV cities include Pune, Ahmedabad and Surat.
For most carmakers, the transition to BS IV for a petrol car would require only a remapping of its engine control unit (ECU), but for diesel cars, the process includes fitting a particulate filter inside the catalytic converter, which is expensive.
Meanwhile, BS III delayed for rest of India: While 13 cities are becoming BS IV-compliant today, the rest of India has till October 31 to become BS III. A government notification issued on Wednesday clarified that BS III emission norms for the rest of India have been deferred by six months. BS II norms continue till then.
“The postponement was agreed among all stakeholders and this notification was necessary to implement this decision,” said Dilip Chenoy, secretary-general, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
Auto industry experts said some diesel vehicle makers had been lobbying for the BS III delay since the price rise for diesel vehicles was going to be steeper than petrol ones.
But a source said the reason for the BS III deferment is the non-availability of the fuel. It seems the petroleum ministry had proposed staggered availability of the fuel, beginning with Goa on April 3, three other states by June, three more by July and the rest by October. The roadmap was not accepted by the government, which is why the postponement.
For two-wheelers, BS III implementation has been uniformly postponed across all cities to October 1. Ditto for tractors, which follow a different set of norms.
Meanwhile, confusion prevailed on the pricing policy for the new fuel.
Even though the petroleum ministry said it will let the oil companies pass on the extra expenses of producing the fuel to consumers, a senior Indian Oil official said the company is yet to get any official communication on the subject from the ministry. “I am not aware of any such move (to raise prices)... We cannot increase prices unless we have something in writing.”
Petroleum secretary S Sundaresan had said last week that companies will be allowed to increase prices by around 41 paise per litre for petrol and 26 paise per litre for diesel.
An official with the Hindustan Petroleum Corp said more clarity is expected on Thursday, when the fuel sale will be officially inaugurated in many cities.
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