Being the manufacturer with the largest array of products, Maruti’s team has an uphill task of ensuring that all powertrain options are optimized and calibrated before the BS6 emission norms kick in next year.
Talking about numbers, Maruti has approximately 15 different models and multiple engine and gearbox options for each of these. The overall combinations stack up to around 40 different engine-gearbox options. Each of these have to be first made BS VI emission norms compliant and then tuned for optimum performance and fuel efficiency.
Additionally, the team also has the upcoming crash-test norms deadline to meet. It has to ensure that all cars are compliant to the crash-test norms which will come into effect from the next year. All new cars of Maruti cars are already meeting crash test norms. It is their old cars, like the Omni, Alto, WagonR, Gypsy, Eeco, etc which do not meet the norms.
The cars which are meeting crash test norms are Ciaz, Ertiga, Swift, Dzire, S-Cross, Baleno, Celerio, Ignis and Brezza. Global NCAP recently awarded Maruti Brezza a 4 star safety rating, same rating as Tata Nexon. The cars which are not meeting safety norms, will need to be updated thoroughly.
CV Raman, senior executive director, Maruti Suzuki India, recently told in an interview that his team is working very hard to ensure that the company meets the deadlines for both the norms. The team has even expanded itself at Rohtak and Gurgaon by adding more people, just to ensure that the targets are met in time. To expedite the task, the team is also taking support from Suzuki Motor Corp (Japan).
As per a latest report, engineers at Maruti Suzuki are working overtime to ensure that the cars from country’s largest auto manufacturer meet the upcoming BS VI norms, ahead of the April 2020 deadline. The last month’s update from the Supreme Court which stated that sale of all BS IV vehicles will be prohibited from 1st April 2020 has impacted the plans and readiness of all auto manufacturers.
