Government issues rules for mandatory recall of defective vehicles by auto manufacturers

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on March 17 issued new set of guidelines for the recall of defective vehicles by automobile manufacturers.

As part of the new guidelines, the government has asked automobile companies to recall vehicles in case the number of complaint about a defective part in a particular model rises beyond a threshold.

The new rules are part of the government’s plans to increase safety standards of vehicles in the country. In 2020, recalls made by auto firms to repair potential vehicle defects hit a four-year high with nearly 380,000 recalls recorded in the year.

For two-wheelers whose annual sales are up to 3,000 units, if the number of identical complaints rises beyond 20 percent of sales or 600, manufacturers will be obliged to recall the particular model of the vehicles.

Similarly, for two-wheelers with annual sales between 3,001 – 60,000 units annually, if the number of complaints rises beyond 600 plus 10 percent of sales beyond 3,000, manufacturers will be obliged to recall the particular model.

Two-wheelers with sales of more than 60,000 units will be recalled if the number of complaints rises beyond 6,300 plus 10 percent of sales beyond 60,000.

In the case of three-wheelers and quadricycles, the recall process will be triggered at 20 percent identical complaints for vehicles with sales up to 500 unit annually.

For three-wheelers and quadricycles with sales annual sales between 501-10,000 units, the recall process will be triggered if the number of complaints rise beyond 100 plus 10 percent of sales beyond 5,000.

For three-wheelers with sales of more than 10,000 units, manufacturers will have to recall the vehicles if more than identical complaints rise beyond 1,050 plus two per cent of sales beyond 10,o00 units annually.

For vehicles that can carry up to eight passengers like passenger vehicles, the recall process can be triggered at 20 percent of identical complaint for vehicles registering up to 500 unit of annual sales; 100 plus 10 percent for 501-10,000 units of annual sales and 1050 plus 2.5 percent for vehicles seeing over 10,000 a year sales.

For commercial vehicles like buses and trucks, vehicle recall will be triggered at three percent of yearly sales.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has also defined rules for recall of defective motor vehicles, investigation process and officials who can conduct such investigations, obligations of manufacturers, importers and retrofitters, accreditation of testing agencies and type approval procedures.