Auto companies need to get their act together. Recalls made by auto firms to repair potential vehicle defects hit a four-year high in 2020, with nearly 380,000 recalls recorded in the year.
The jump was more than double of 2019, when the industry saw nearly 160,000 recalls, according to data provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the apex national body representing all major vehicle and vehicular engine manufacturers in India.
The largest number of vehicles recalled was in 2016 when the industry saw a staggering 932,000 recalls. The list includes passenger vehicles and two-wheelers, not trucks, buses and three-wheelers.
Maruti Suzuki, Honda Cars India and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) were among the companies that made the largest number of recalls in 2020.
Auto companies called back their vehicles to rectify a variety of potential defects such as stalling of engine, oil leakage, engine not starting, airbag malfunction, disabled on-board diagnosis, degradation of wiring harness, non-compliant stop lamps and even sudden fire.
Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest carmaker, made the highest number of recalls with little over 175,000 units of Eeco, Wagon R and Baleno.
Honda followed with 65,651 units of the Amaze, City, Jazz, Brio, WR-V, BR-V and CR-V being recalled. HMSI, the country’s second biggest two-wheeler maker, called back 35,700 units of the Dio, Activa and Activa 6G.
Among luxury carmakers, it was Mercedes-Benz, India’s biggest manufacturer of high-end cars that topped the number of vehicle recalls during 2020. The German giant called back 6,324 units of E-Class, C-Class, GLS, GLC, G-Class, E63 AMG and Maybach S 560. Swedish-Chinese brand Volvo recalled 3,571 units of S80, S60, XC60, XC40, V90 Cross Country and XC90.
Puneet Gupta, Director, IHS Markit automotive forecasting, said "Auto industry is going through a transformation due to emergence of new regulations and new technologies. Also the pace at which new regulations are enforced also leads to shorter time for development. This in turn leads to probability of some defects being passed on to consumers. Though its rare and every safety aspect is taken into care during development by OEMs and suppliers. Recall these days should be treated and seen as pro activeness on behalf of car manufacturers to give their the customer the best"
While the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), headed by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, has taken rapid steps in clearing some roadblocks concerning the automotive sector over the last few months, it has been found dragging its feet over finalising the crucial vehicle recall policy.
Though India is the fourth largest automotive market in the world, the country still lacks an official, government-defined and mandated vehicle recall policy, unlike countries in Europe, the US and China, which have strict laws on vehicle recalls.
Vehicle recalls in India are presently controlled by manufacturers themselves in the absence of any law to govern them and therefore, attract no penalties. Compensation, if any, depends on the manufacturer. Owners are contacted by auto companies to get their vehicles to the service centre for the recall, where repair is carried out free of cost.
Notifying of mandatory fitment of passenger airbags in the front in passenger vehicles (PVs), simplification of license procurement, notifying increase in blending of ethanol to E20 and mandatory fitment of FASTag were some of the initiatives taken by the MoRTH over the past few months. Some of these steps were laid down in the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act (MVAA).
But MoRTH has delayed the implementation of vehicle recall policy, which is also part of the MVAA. The ministry had re-invited suggestions and comments in June 2020, after it issued the notification in March last year.
Notification no. 337(E), covering section 39-40 of the MVAA, includes aspects like recall policy for defective vehicles.
This also comprises procedure for recall, steps for detailed investigation by an officer, investigation procedure in a time bound manner (six months), role of testing agencies, obligation of manufacturers, importers and retrofitters and accreditation of testing agencies.
The Centre felt that the stakeholders needed adequate opportunity to examine the notification and provide comments and suggestions, which were impacted by the COVID-19-induced lockdown last year.
More than 10 months have passed but MoRTH is yet to issue a notification on vehicle recall policy.
As per the MVAA, the government can force a vehicle maker to recall a particular model at the request of a certain number of owners, testing agency or any other source deemed fit. For defective vehicles the government has even proposed a fine ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore on the manufacturer.
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