With barely 16 months to go before BS VI emission norms kick in on April 1, 2020, Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s leading carmaker, is aggressively working to get over 40 variants of powertrains BS VI-ready, across more than 15 models, to meet the stricter emission norms. The company has also reinforced manpower in its engineering and research and development in order to be able to meet the BS VI norms for its fleet ahead of schedule.

"We are working very hard, we are working overtime. No other manufacturer has this kind of work which they have to do. We have the largest number of model portfolio and the largest number of powertrains," CV Raman, senior executive director, Maruti Suzuki India, told PTI. He was responding to a query on how the Supreme Court's order last month to stop selling BS IV vehicles across the country from April 1, 2020, has impacted the company’s readiness for BS VI norms.

Elaborating on the scale of work, Maruti Suzuki is undertaking to meet the new stricter emission norm, Raman said, "We have more than 15 models and more than 40 variants of powertrains, which is a combination of engine and transmission. So, we will have to ensure that we have to do all of these ahead of schedule."

As regards the carmaker making all of its existing models BS VI-compliant, he said, "We are working on it definitely and we will ensure that customers get BS-VI. We will try to do ahead of time."

Increasing headcount in R&D and engineering
Commenting on augmenting manpower for BS VI-related activity, Raman said, "Yes, we have been continuously upgrading our people at our facilities both at Rohtak and at Gurgaon."

He said the company had to deploy more people not to just meet the BS-VI norms but also other safety regulations which had come into effect this year.

Without specifying the number of people deployed for the project, Raman said, "It is a substantial number, especially on the powertrain (for activities such as) engine design, calibration and testing."

Moreover, additional manpower has been utilised in areas such as transmission design, quality assurance and body changes, he added.

Stating that BS-VI work is simultaneously underway at the company's R&D centre at Rohtak and Gurgaon facility along with Suzuki Motor Corp in Japan, Raman said the company is also working with suppliers such as Dentsu, Bosch and others. "There is no choice for us, we have to do it. For us, it is do or die," he said.