New Delhi: Supreme Court on Wednesday has banned sale of vehicles not compliant with Bharat Stage IV emission standards from 1 April, leaving them with just three days to dispose BS III vehicles.
According to a submission made by the lobby group Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) in the Supreme Court on 20 January, the industry had around 820,000 units of two-wheelers, commercial vehicles, both small and large, passenger vehicles and three wheelers, at various stages of inventory clearance.
India’s largest two-wheeler company, Hero MotorCorp alone had an inventory of over 300,000 BS III vehicles that are being phased out.
A person familiar with Hero MotoCorp’s plans said on condition of anonymity that since 20 March, the company had managed to sell two-thirds of the 300,000 BS III two-wheelers it had in its inventory. Mint could not verify the claim independently.
Pawan Munjal, chairman and managing director of Hero MotoCorp, said the company has been producing only BS IV compliant vehicles for the past one month.
Ashok Leyland Ltd claimed that it had already sold most of its BS-III vehicles. The remaining inventory after 31 March will be exported, it said, or upgraded to BS-IV standards