In what would give a big boost to Bajaj Auto--the only company that is production ready with a 4-wheel Quadricycle, the RE60--the government is looking to fast-track the norms for this new segment. CNBC-TV18's Ronojoy Banerjee reports.
A meeting was held between the manufacturers across the board under one roof to build consensus and to discuss the standards of the new vehicle segment. Sources say there was consensus on a few points. For instance, the industry broadly agreed that this new category of vehicle the Quadricycle should be an intra-city vehicle and should not be allowed to ply between cities or between state to state.
Also, the industry people who were representing the companies in that meeting also agreed to the fact that India should not blindly super impose the conditions that is prevalent in Europe. Europe is the only place right now which has certain guidelines and standards that these vehicles would have to meet.
However, one crucial issue where the industry is yet to reach consensus is what the maximum weight of the vehicle should be. As per the European standards it says the maximum weight should be 450 kilograms. Sources say most manufacturers were pushing the maximum limit somewhere in the range of 500-550 kilograms, but there is no consensus beyond that point. Some people in the industry feel that the more you increase the maximum weight limit it would in a sense defeat the purpose because lighter vehicles mean they would be more fuel efficient and would be emitting lesser amount of carbon.
But one thing is very clear: the government is not happy. Senior government officers told CNBC-TV18 that they feel that the committee was formed two months ago but there has been no progress so far. They hope that it would be completed by February 15.
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