Today, April 1, 2020, is a red letter day for the Indian automotive industry and a laudatory achievement for vehicle manufacturers and their component suppliers. In a scant three-year period, India Auto Inc has leapfrogged BS V to become compliant with stringent BS VI emission norms.

This transition comes four years ahead of the first plan of the government of India in 2014, wherein it was proposed to move to BS VI in the year 2024. The commitment and combined efforts of all stakeholders of the industry -- from OEMs to suppliers to oil marketing companies -- has helped make BS VI migration a reality against all odds. 

With the emission tech upgrade, BS VI-compliant vehicles are now at par with Europe, meeting one of the most stringent emission norms globally. In fact, the emission norms of all two-wheeler models in India is ahead of Europe (2021) and Japan (2022). The magnitude of the industry shift to BS VI can be seen from the fact that over 1,000 models and variants of BS IV were to be developed to BS VI norms in just 36 months with the industry all together investing around Rs 70,000 crore in this greener technology.

Commenting on the BS VI norms kicking in today, Rajan Wadhera, president, SIAM said: “It is unprecedented anywhere in the world to switch to such stringent emission regime on one single day, for all categories of vehicles including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, passenger vehicles, trucks and buses. I compliment my fellow industry colleagues for this outstanding achievement in meeting BS VI emission norms despite facing huge challenges of technology, time and resources.”

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BS 6 Special: Part 2 – how BS 6 engines work

BS 6 Special: Part 3 – the engines BS 6 killed

BS 6 Special: Part 4 – BS 6 and two-wheelers