Cars & Bikes That You May Not Find Under BS-VI Era

The BS-VI emission norms are effective since 1 April. Several automakers have prioritized which engines would be upgraded. Leading car maker Maruti Suzuki had announced the discontinuation of diesel variants of its cars almost one year ago. Since then Maruti has been only launching petrol cars with updated BSVI engine. Vitara Breeza and S-cross which were earlier only available with a diesel engine option was popular with the buyers. The Fiat Sourced 1.3L Multijet engine could not make the jump to BS-VI, making the automaker launch Vitara Breeza and showcased S-cross petrol in Auto Expo this year.

Spokesperson of Maruti Suzuki had told BW Businessworld a while ago, “The primary reason for us to announce the discontinuation of our diesel vehicles is the extremely high cost of upgrading current BS-IV diesel vehicles to BS-VI compliant vehicles (by April 2020). The cost increase is expected to be in the range of over Rs 1 lakh”.

Renault has dropped its entire diesel engine portfolio of K9K engines while entering to BS-VI phase. The French automaker has discontinued Lodgy and Captur (launched in 2015 and 2017 respectively). Sales data for December 2019 shows that the company dispatched just 1 unit of Captur and 37 unit of Lodgy.

"We are ending the K9K diesel engines. From December 31, 2019, we are done with diesel vehicles. Popular Duster will also only available in petrol option. The decision is because of the BS VI transition," said Venkatram Mamillapalle, country CEO and managing director, Renault India Operations.

Japanese Carmaker Honda has said that its crossover SUV- BRV (launched in 2016) will not get updated BSVI engine. The vehicle was not getting good sales numbers and hence company has axed it from the portfolio. Additionally, the diesel engine variants of City, Civic and CRV also paved off from the BS-VI lineup of the company.

By analyzing the sales figures from April 2019 to October 2019, it is observed that petrol models contributes a major share in the sales and over 67% of the cars sold in India were gasoline-powered and nearly 33 per cent of the cars sold were powered by diesel engines. That’s why OEMs were hesitating to make their diesel engines BS-VI compliant.

Toyota is also discontinuing its Etios range along with LIVA, Sedan and Cross models in addition to the Corolla Altis. Meanwhile, Tata is upgrading the majority all its vehicle to BS-VI phase. The automaker might discontinue diesel engine variant of Tiago and Tigor. Models such as Hexa, Safari Strome, Zest, Bolt and other older generation cars also might see their way out from Tata’s portfolio.

According to some industry reports, Mahindra has discontinued the Bolero Plus 9 Seater and plus ambulances. The KUV100 diesel has been discontinued, while its petrol-CNG variant will continue to remains in the portfolio.

Also, Mahindra’s dependency on diesel engine is gigantic. According to reports, Nearly 93 per cent of vehicle sold by Mahindra were diesel powered. That’s why M&M bought Ford India’s stake that gives it the essential technology on petrol cars.

Due to low volume in sales, Nissan has suspended the production of Sunny and Micra completely. In the month of January, company sold the 35-35 unit of both the vehicle, which clearly indicates the lower demand in the market. Similarly, Renault have announced to not to update their diesel engine and hence will only offer vehicles with petrol engine option only.

Even Two-Wheeler
The two-wheeler segment is also dealing with issues regarding BSVI compliance, Honda two-wheeler has decided to axe out CBR250R, Navi, Cliq, Unicorn 150 and Aviator from its updated BS-VI portfolio. Some of these models were not getting a good response in the market and others were just too old to update. Similarly Royal Enfield dropped Bullet 500 and Classic 500 from its 2020 line up and launched Tribute black BSIV limited edition for aficionados.

Speaking on discontinuation, Vinod Dasari, CEO of Royal Enfield said, “Since 2009 the Royal Enfield 500cc motorcycles have proudly set the stage for the middle-weight motorcycling segment in India. The Classic 500 in particular has garnered success for Royal Enfield across various international markets with its sublime retro-chic design and engaging ride experience. As we sign off the last of the Royal Enfield 500cc motorcycles, the Classic 500 Tribute Black is an opportunity for aficionados to own a piece of Royal Enfield and motorcycling history”.

The Legendary Super Sport bike, Suzuki Hayabusa has also seen the end of the day. The BSIV units of the busa were completely sold-out in India. In the same way, scooters such as Yamaha Ray, Ray ZR and Fascino will also be missing from the portfolio of Yamaha motors.

The primary reason behind most mainstream two-wheelers manufacturer ditching their product is the increase in expense of manufacturing the vehicle. Initially, most of the two wheelers were came fitted with Carburetors which was used for mixing air and fuel for engines and now this has to be replaced by Fuel Injection systems, which is far expensive than conventional carburetors.

Additionally, BSVI complied two wheelers needs much more catalyst material which adds more burden to the cost of vehicle.