Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), which has been producing BS IV variants of its BharatBenz product range of trucks above 9 to 49 tonnes since August 2015, has called for a ban on sale of BS III CVs or a stiff penalty in lieu of a ban.

DICV says its BharatBenz BS-IV vehicles meet the norms using a system derived from Bluetec technology proven in Daimler vehicles in many markets over a decade. DICV has tested this technology in Indian operating conditions for over a million kilometres before offering it to customers. Apart from meeting the stringent emission regulations of BS-IV norms, the vehicles also provide better fuel economy to customers.

Commenting with regard to the ongoing BS IV emission regulation hearings at the Supreme Court, Erich Nesselhauf, MD and CEO, DICV, said: “At Daimler we believe that industry interests can and must only go together with the interests of the society at large. BS IV will bring much-needed improvements in terms of air quality, to the benefit of the people and the environment. From an economic perspective, it should also not be overlooked that BS IV delivers fuel economy advantages compared to BS III and thus helps to reduce the nation’s dependency on oil imports.”

“Our entire BharatBenz portfolio has been available also in BS IV since more than a year already and feedback from several hundred customers has been very positive. Over the past few months we have not only aggressively phased out our BS III production and stocks but have also begun production of BS IV in full swing.”

“We are now preparing for the launch of an entirely new environment-friendly and even more fuel efficient range of BharatBenz trucks early April, featuring our BS IV solution based on Daimler SCR technology which has been proven hundreds of thousands of times in markets across the world.”

“In the current environment, OEMs ramping up BS III vehicles aggressively before March 31 could create imbalance to OEMs like BharatBenz that are ramping down BS III vehicles. Selling BS III vehicles should not be allowed after April 1, or at least the sales of those vehicles should be penalised in order to set off the additional cost and environment burden the society has to absorb. In general, it should not be allowed that some OEMs gain additional margins, delaying the implementation of the urgently needed new BS IV environmental standards.”

The Supreme Court judgement on the hearing is expected today. Stay tuned.