- A lot of auto giants such as Tata, Maruti, Toyota, and Mahindra are closing down the production of the selected models due to the high transition to BS-VI.
Come April 1, some of the Indian roads ‘ common passenger vehicles will be missing as auto manufacturers rationalize the number of vehicles they produce due to the high cost of transition to BS-VI variants.
Some of the models to go off the shelves include Toyota’s Etios, Liva, Corolla Altis, KUV100 diesel version and Mahindra’s Bolero Plus, Hexa, Safari Storme, Zest, Bolt and all Tata Motors, Maruti and Renault diesel cars Although Hyundai has converted most of its models to BS-VI, it will only discontinue the Xcent (prime) diesel, which catered to the fleet segment.
Executives in the industry believe OEMs should replace the vehicles with new models and variants. With the clamor for the growth of gasoline engines, automotive companies can look at those products instead of diesel-powered vehicles, experts claim.
“At Mahindra, we are updating most of our current portfolio to BS-VI along with expected new product launches and a few small volume versions that are being discontinued due to BS-VI will be replaced with some of our other existing products,” said Veejay Nakra, head of sales and marketing for Mahindra’s automotive division.
The Bolero Plus 9 seat movers and Plus Ambulance is discontinued. As the XUV300 is the flagship model in the compact SUV market, the KUV100 diesel will be discontinued. The KUV100 will start on the gasoline and bi-fuel (gasoline-CNG) models, Nakra says.
However, it is no surprise that businesses use the BS-VI process to quietly withdraw products that have not performed well in the market. Naveen Soni, Sr VP–Toyota Kirloskar’s sales & service confirming the discontinuation of Liva and Etios, said “We’re still researching and analyzing the market, continuing to recognize consumer tastes and patterns.
It also refers to situations where we need to discontinue an established model to vacate plant resources for the implementation of new and improved technologies.
In order to meet our customers ‘ needs, we are now offering Yaris and Glanza in BS-VI avatar respectively against the discontinued Liva and Etios. We will also be discontinuing the Corolla Altis in addition to the Etios series, having seen a deliberate change in consumer tastes from the C sedan segment to the C MPV segment.’
Automotive firms need to see the product’s potential through a lens of market viability. Decisions are taken product-wise and the costs involved updating the product, said Arun Kumar, former head & auto consultant of Nissan India The country’s largest vehicle maker, Maruti Suzuki, seems to be unfazed. Shashank Srivastava, ED, (marketing and sales), said: “Maruti will be producing BS6 vehicles from the end of January 2020 and this transition from BS-IV to BS-VI was expected a year earlier.
In April 2019, best-selling consumer models such as Alto and Baleno had been upgraded to BS-VI petrol engines. WagonR, Swift, and Dzire followed closely in June 2019 and Ertiga in July 2019, XL6 in August 2019, S-PRESSO in September 2019; Eeco, Celerio, Super Carry, Ciaz in January 2020; and Vitara Brezza, IGNIS in February 2020. We also had announced the end of BS-IV diesel vehicles almost a year in advance so our customers have a knowledgeable fuel type option.
“Tata Motors declined to comment. While Tata Motors will do away with older generation vehicles, sources in the know said, the focus will be on Nexon, Altroz, Tiago, Tigor, Harrier, and the EV segment.
Vendors have also assisted and worked to update petrol, CNG, manual/automatic transmission, or AMT to BS-VI models. But it wasn’t an easy journey for suppliers, particularly given the difficult external conditions, with the difficulty of supply parts.
