Mercedes-Benz India Will Make Diesels BS-VI Compliant First
Saar: All forthcoming diesel-fed models will meet BS-VI emission norms, says the three-pointed star from Germany.
From April 2020, India will run only on BS-VI (Bharat Stage – Six) grade of fuel. At least, that’s what the government is targeting. While that is a tight timeline for some automakers to upgrade the engines and make full use of the cleaner fuel, it isn’t a problem for brands like Mercedes-Benz. The three-pointed star from Germany has had Euro-VI compliant, which is the same as BS-VI, engines for a while now and will face no issues whatsoever to upgrade its existing models to meet the new emission norms.
At the launch event of the Mercedes-AMG S 63 Coupe 4MATIC+, Michael Jopp, vice president, sales and marketing, Mercedes-Benz India, said that upcoming deadline of having BS-VI ready vehicles does not pose any threats to the company. He further added that Mercedes-Benz India will upgrade its diesel engines to BS-VI standards first since they comprise of 75 per cent of sales. Apart from those, all the forthcoming diesel-fed products will be BS-VI compliant, he confirmed.
Upgrading the petrol engines to meet BS-VI standards will be taken up as a project after the diesels are up to date. As of now, only the Delhi-NCR region in the country has BS-VI grade fuel available. Until the cleaner, more eco-friendly fuel is available across the country, the BS-VI compliant engines from Mercedes-Benz can run efficiently on the current BS-IV grade, said Jopp. The change in technology is likely to bump up the prices of its model range in India but those specifics haven’t been materialised yet.
Mercedes-Benz India launched the S 350 d earlier this year, which became the first product in the company’s portfolio to come with a BS-VI compliant diesel mill. Currently, Mercedes-Benz India assembles all its diesel engines at its plant in Chakan, which is in close proximity of Pune in Maharashtra. That facility has received around Rs 2,200 crore investment over the years. After a double-digit growth during the last fiscal, Mercedes-Benz India is eyeing for an even better performance this fiscal.
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