Maruti Suzuki Updates 70% of Petrol Model Line-up To Comply With BS-VI Norms

• Published On: 22 August 2019
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Maruti Suzuki's 70% Petrol Models in Market Are Now BS-VI Compliant

The upcoming BS-VI emission norms will ensure that India directly shifts from the current BS-IV emission norms to the BS-VI norms, skipping an entire generation in the process. The deadline for the BS-VI emission compliance for all the cars manufactured in India has been set as April 1, 2020. The carmakers in the country too are readying their models as per the change in the emission norms regime. Now India’s leading car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki has also been doing the same and in this process it has achieved the feat of upgrading 70% of its petrol car line-up to BSVI emission norms compliance levels. In a regulatory filing, the carmaker stated that as of now a total of 6 of its petrol engine cars comply with the BS-VI emission norms, the deadline for which has been set as April 1, 2020. Now that the automaker has launched the XL6 MUV in the Indian market, the BSVI compliant petrol engine of the MUV will ensure that this becomes the 7th car in the maker's line-up to comply with the upcoming BS-VI emission norms.

This is in line with Maruti Suzuki's plan of moving out of the diesel car market at least in the initial period of the BS-VI emission norms. Therefore, the maker is only focussing on upgrading its petrol engine cars in the market as per the upcoming BS-VI emission norms. As of now, Maruti Suzuki has Alto 800, WagonR (1.2L), Swift, Baleno, Dzire, and Ertiga MPV in the BS-VI compliance category. The company also went ahead to claim that it is the first brand in the country to have such a large number of vehicles in the BS-VI compliance category. The company started with the launch of the Baleno premium hatchback facelift at the start of the year. Then the other subsequent cars like the Alto 800, WagonR, Swift, Dzire and Ertiga were made BS-VI compliant.

The managing director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India Limited, Kenichi Ayukawa spoke about the brand's latest achievement and stated,

“As a responsible and environment-conscious brand, Maruti Suzuki is aligned with the government of India’s vision to introduce BS-VI compliant vehicles before April 2020. Seven of our top-selling models are BS-VI compliant much before the deadline.”

“We are committed to progressively upgrade our entire range of petrol cars to BS-VI technology before stipulated timelines. The BS-VI vehicles use Suzuki’s proven technology that helps to substantially reduce the emissions thus contributing to a cleaner and greener environment.”

“We extend our gratitude to our customers who are early adopters of environment-friendly BS-VI technology in our vehicles.”

The compliance rules to BS-VI norms dictate that the vehicles have a lot lesser emissions than before. This requires making significant updates to the combustion and exhaust tech of the vehicle which in turn incurs significant costs. The companies generally pass on this cost to the customers which has led to a rise in the prices of the vehicles in the market. The diesel cars will require even more work and this in turn will push the costs of the diesel cars in the BS-VI norms regime much higher than the petrol counterparts, this is the reason why Maruti is staying away from the diesel market in the initial period of the BS-VI emission norms. However, other models in the maker's range still need to be updated as per the upcoming norms and some models that are only offered with diesel engines will have to be shifted to petrol engines. Hence, the maker has its task cut out for now.