Greener cars can wait, India laps up BS-IV models on festive offers
Source：The economic times
From：Taiwan Trade Centre, Kolkata
Update Time：2019/11/20
With only five months to go for new emission norms to kick in, automakers have started the drive to launch BS-VI petrol vehicles.
However, BS-VI variants seem to move slower with customers preferring BS-IV variant products in the current festival season. Auto companies have been doling out a number of offers to reduce their BS-IV inventories with some offering discounts up to Rs 1 lakh on certain products in their portfolio.
With only five months to go for new emission norms to kick in, automakers have started the drive to launch BS-VI petrol vehicles.
However, BS-VI variants seem to move slower with customers preferring BS-IV variant products in the current festival season. Auto companies have been doling out a number of offers to reduce their BS-IV inventories with some offering discounts up to Rs 1 lakh on certain products in their portfolio.
Deep discounts have boosted sentiments to some extent, during the first ten days of the festive season leading up to Dussehera. Sources say Maruti SuzukiNSE 0.46 % saw an uptake in wholesale and retail sales of their BS-IV products by 5-7% in these 10 days helping clear stocks. “Sales of BS-VI are not booming but at the same time we do not have much unsold BS-IV inventory. We planned our BS-VI product launches ahead of the deadline,” said RC Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki.
Early adoption of BS-IV compliant petrol vehicles in the mass segment has somewhat worked for Maruti Suzuki and it has sold over 2 lakh units of BS-VI emission compliant vehicles in six months of launching its first such car in April this year.
Hyundai Motor has been another early adopter of BS-VI cars and the Korean company does not think these models are currently selling faster than BS-IV. “I see buyers still buying BS-IV because of the offers and discounts it offers and only a handful of customers opting for BS-VI despite the price difference,” said Vikas Jain, national sales head at Hyundai Motor India. Several dealers ET spoke to feel manufacturers should have both BS-IV and BS-VI models on sale. “Only then will customers see value in the products. At this point, a buyer will go ahead and buy a BS-VI variant only if he is environmentally conscious,” says Nikunj Sanghi, chairman of Automotive Skills Development Council. Dealers also said the BS-IV vehicles will continue to command a high resale value for some time as service costs of a BS-VI vehicle are an imponderable for now. This is the reason several used car dealers are willing to carry a sizeable inventory. “There will be an increase in demand of BS-IV vehicles in the usedcar market. Dealers will get a higher margin, says Shubh Bansal, co-founder of pre-owned car dealer Truebil.
Source：
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/auto/auto-news/green er-cars-can-wait-india-laps-up-bs-iv-models-on-festive-offers/articleshow/71697666.cms