The upcoming BS VI emission norms will kick in from 1st April, 2020. In a recent update from PTI, Hyundai, India’s second largest car-maker has confirmed that it will be bringing in BS VI compliant vehicles from early next year. At the moment, Hyundai has two BS6 cars, the petrol version of the recently launched Grand i10 Nios and the new Elantra facelift.
Hyundai has also stated that it will be upgrading its entire product portfolio to BS 6 norms, including diesel models. All Hyundai cars like Creta, Grand i10, i20 Elite, Venue, etc will be upgraded to BS6. Hyundai reports that it is ready with the required technology to upgrade its motors but is looking at the upcoming emission norms upgrade deadline as a sweet business opportunity.
Hyundai intends to sell BS4 emission norms complaint vehicles well up till March 2020. This will help the South Korean automaker to have a clear price advantage when compared with India’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki.
Earlier, Maruti Suzuki had stated that it will stop production of BS4 vehicles by 31st December 2019 and the sales too shall close around January 2020. The difference in timelines will help Hyundai models to have a better value for money quotient when compared with vehicles from Maruti, which are close rivals in multiple segments.
In addition, Maruti will have no diesel cars on sale from Jan 2020. Hyundai on the other hand, will have diesel BS4 cars on sale till March 2020, and diesel BS6 cars on sale from April 2020.
February-March 2020 will be an interesting time for the Indian auto-industry. The upgrade in emission norms will result in considerable price increase across all cars (especially diesel trims) however customers will look out for value for money deals as dealers will be eager to liquidate their BS 4 stocks. Hyundai’s strategy is clearly to make the most out of this period and possibly get a larger market share.
This time, government too has clarified all clauses related to the change in emission norms. It has stated that BS4 vehicles will remain operational till their entire registration time-frame. Additionally, it has also stated that sales and not just production of all BS4 vehicles post the 1st April 2020 deadline will be illegal. Similar level of clarity was missing in the previous upgrade deadline which happened for commercial vehicles (from BS3 to BS4).
The next big launch from Hyundai will be the 2020 Creta, which is expected to be launched early next year. Since the arrival of the Kia Seltos and MG Hector, Creta has lost its spot as the segment’s best-seller. However, with the generation upgrade, Hyundai can expect the Creta to take back the top-spot.
