Talking Point: Working overtime to meet BS-VI norm: Maruti

The company has also reinforced manpower in its engineering and research and development in order to be able to meet the Bharat Stage (BS) VI norms for its fleet ahead of schedule.

“We are working very hard, we are working overtime. No other manufacturer has this kind of work which they have to do. We have the largest number of model portfolio and the largest number of powertrains,” MSI Senior ED C V Raman said. He was responding to a query on how the Supreme Court’s order last month to stop selling BS-IV vehicle across the country from April 1, 2020, has altered MSI’s preparation for BS-VI emission norms.

Earlier in 2016, the Centre had announced that India would skip the BS-V norms altogether and adopt BS-VI norms. It had stated that from April 1, 2020, only vehicles complying with the latest emission norms would be manufactured while giving three months to automobile firms for the transition to start selling BS-VI vehicles. However, citing air pollution issues, the apex court said no BS-IV vehicles would be allowed to be sold across the country from April 1, 2020.

MSI is undertaking in order to meet the new stricter emission norm, Raman said, “We have more than 15 models and more than 40 variants of powertrains, which is a combination of engine and transmission. So, we will have to ensure that we have to do all of these ahead of schedule.” When asked if MSI would be able to make all of its existing models meet BS-VI norm, he said, “We are working on it definitely and we will ensure that customers get BS-VI. We will try to do ahead of time.”