The good news is that India is catching up with the European automobile emission norms and bringing in the most stringent Bharat Stage IV norms. The bad news is that the new norms will make it necessary for some very good cars to be phased out from the thirteen big cities where the BS IV norms come into effect.Come April 1st and new units of some very popular models including Maruti 800, Ford Ikon (1.3 petrol), Fiat Palio, Skoda Fabia (1.2 petrol) and Octavia (1.9 TDI engine), and Chevrolet Tavera (2.5 DI) will no longer be sold in the 13 cities where the new norms would be effective from the aforesaid date.
All these models, however, will continue to be sold in cities where BS III norms will be implemented.
Of all the cars, the absence of new Maruti 800’s in these cities will bring an ache to many of its fans (me being one of them). The car brought a revolution of sorts when it was launched during the 80’s. Company’s engineers tried their best to re-engineer the car to make it BS IV compliant but gave up because the price would have shot up to a great extent, making it uncompetitive. Another reason for the Maruti 800 phasing out is that Maruti Suzuki has launched a number of small cars, which are doing extremely well for the company.
Skoda took a cue from Maruti and decide to phase out its Fabia (1.2 petrol) and Octavia (1.9 TDI engine) models rather than upgrading them to meet the new emission norms.
The Ikon has been a lifesaver for Ford for a very long time, but its 1.3 litre petrol variant, which does not comply with the BS IV norms, would be phased out.
All the models of Chevrolet, except the Tavera, have been calibrated to be BS IV complaint. So Tavera would put an end to its big city life and make a detour to the BS III complaint cities of India.
Fiat was in bad shape in India until it launched the Linea and the Punto. Palio, which was already counting its days, got the final blow when Punto became the hot favourite of Fiat. Palio will finally rest in peace, at least in the thirteen BS IV compliant cities.
The thirteen cities where BS IV norms will come in effect from April1include Delhi & NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad, Agra. The new norm will bring a major blow to these car companies as these thirteen cities constitute about 40-50 per cent of total car sales in the country.
Car manufacturers have already hinted at increasing their car prices post the implementation of the new emission norms. Since the internals of the cars including the engine and transmission have to be upgraded so as to comply with the new norms, the cost per vehicle would rise up Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000. Now, in the light of the BS IV norms, the automakers have two choices – either to phase out the vehicles or to upgrade them (in which case the price hike is justified). But since these models have been in India for about a decade or more, it makes less sense to upgrade them and phasing them out from these cities seems like a more viable option.
Labels: BS-IV-Norms, Cars-being Phased-out, Chevrolet-Tavera, Fiat-Palio, Ford-Ikon, Maruti-800, New-Emission-Norms, Octavia, Skoda-Fabia
