Supreme Court bans sale of BS-III vehicles from April 2017 as an estimated over eight lakh units are in a position not to reach customers
In what can be said as a utter shocker to the automobile industry as a whole, Supreme Court has today declared the ban of Bharat Stage III emission compliant vehicles. It all began when lawyer MC Mehta questioned the uncontrollable pollution level Delhi has been left strangling with on the Supreme Court.
There have been lots of talks over what would happen when the new regulations come into effect from 1st April, 2017 especially to the older vehicles that were manufactured based on BS-III. This proscribe means the Indian auto sector, which has around 8.24 lakhs of both two and four wheelers combined at stock, under uncertainty as they seem unable to be sold anymore.
The commercial vehicle industry also faces a huge hit as reports say over 75,000 BS-III vehicles are currently in stock. With 40,000 three-wheelers, 16,000 passenger vehicles and 6.71 lakh two-wheelers, the automotive brands are in a position of enduring huge losses.
When the Indian government came in aid of the auto companies, to sell the already manufactured BS-III based vehicles and requested the SC, there was a shy of relief all around but now the situation turned on its head. The automobile brands have been making abrupt changes to their product portfolio in order to bring the vehicles in compliance with the BS-IV emission standards.
Over the last few months, we have been seeing continuous model updates in the Indian two-wheeler industry as Bajaj Auto became the first brand to meet the new emission norms across its range. The government’s mandatory act to reduce the soaring pollution levels in India will come into from the beginning of April.
In addition to that, a new feature called AHO (Auto Headlamp On) has also been made compulsory to improve visibility during unfavourable and obscure conditions and thereby decreasing the alarming accident levels existing in our country.