Maruti Suzuki plans to stop producing BS-IV models by Dec 2019

New Delhi, Dec. 19 (IANS): Automobile major Maruti Suzukis Chairman R.C. Bhargava on Wednesday said it plans to stop manufacturing Bharat Stage (BS)-IV compliant cars by the end of 2019. The company's decision is in line with the Supreme Court's order stating that no BS-IV vehicle should be sold in the country from April 1, 2020 as the BS-VI emission norms would come into force. "Broadly, the production of BS-VI will largely come to a stop by December 2019," Bhargava said here during a media interaction. "We may still give you some BS-IV vehicles after December 2019 if there is a customer demand for those vehicles... and if we are sure that we can actually register the vehicle before March 31." Bhargava also observed that the sale of BS-VI compliant diesel vehicles may take a hit as their prices would be significantly higher than BS-VI petrol models. "In BS-VI, diesel car price will go up substantially and we will have to consider the customer preference to a diesel car at the new price of a BS-VI diesel car, which will be roughly Rs 2.5 lakh more than a petrol car of BS-VI," he said. The Indian auto industry will fully migrate to manufacturing only BS-VI compliant vehicles on a pan India basis from April 1, 2020. Earlier, the government had decided to "leapfrog directly from BS-IV to BS-VI grade by April 1, 2020, skipping BS-V altogether."