The automobile industry is fully geared up to commence production of vehicles compliant with BS-IV emission norms from April 1 across the country, SIAM said today.
The Bharat Stage IV (BS-IV) emission norms will become applicable to all kinds of vehicles across the country from April 1 this year.
Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) President Vinod Dasari in a statement said that the auto industry has not sought any deferment or delay in the implementation of the BS-IV emission norms.
"Contrary to the misinformation being perpetuated by certain sections of the society, specially environmental activists, the auto industry is fully committed to commence manufacturing of BS-IV vehicles from April 1, 2017, across the country," he added.
The auto industry has fully complied with all technical regulations in the past and will remain fully compliant in the future also, Dasari said.
He added that the Indian auto industry has been the fastest in the world to upgrade its emission norms. While Europe took 13 years to implement the Euro 4 stage, the Indian industry took only 10 years to introduce BS-IV emission norms, which were first introduced in 2010. India's BS-IV emission norms are equivalent to Euro IV norms.
The auto companies have been manufacturing BS-IV compliant passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles since 2010.
Implementation of BS-IV norms pan-India had been delayed due to non-availability of BS-IV fuel across the country, forcing some categories of four-wheeled vehicles to remain at the BS-III stage till April 1 2017.
"The statements suggesting that the auto industry wants to delay or postpone the emission norms are, hence, totally false and deliberately designed to malign the name of the auto industry and stigmatise an industry," he added.
The Indian auto industry will also be the first in the world to leapfrog from BS-IV to BS-VI emission norms by 2020.
Even the developed countries took about ten years and also progressed stage by stage without any leapfrogging, Dasari said.
The record of the Indian automotive industry in respect of compliance with all technical regulations has always been impeccable, he added.
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