The Supreme Court's ban of diesel cars above 2000cc in Delhi and NCR will be a body blow to a number of carmakers, given that a substantial portion of diesel car sales come from this region every month.
16 Dec 2015 | 8743 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
The Supreme Court today has banned registration of diesel-powered SUVs and cars with engines over 2000cc in Delhi and NCRtill March 31, 2016. This will prove to be a body blow to many diesel car manufacturers as Delhi and NCR account for a substantial portion of diesel car sales ...
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The Supreme Court today has banned registration of diesel-powered SUVs and cars with engines over 2000cc in Delhi and NCR till March 31, 2016. This will prove to be a body blow to many diesel car manufacturers as Delhi and NCR account for a substantial portion of diesel car sales every month.
The move follows the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) recent blanket order to curb registration of all diesel cars in Delhi until the next hearing on January 6 and also restrict renewal of registration of such vehicles which are over 10 years old. NGT has also asked the central and state government to stop buying diesel cars in Delhi.
The NGT’s order was met with criticism from Delhi-based car dealers, who then filed a plea seeking an alteration of the order claiming that sales of diesel cars manufactured in 2015 should be allowed since the existing stock would become obsolete by next year.
Moreover, homegrown carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra also came out strongly in opposition of the move with its president (Auto and Farm sectors), Dr Pawan Goenka saying that singling out and stopping registrations of new diesel passenger vehicles in Delhi will not solve the rampant problem of pollution in the city.
Apart from curbing new car registrations, the Supreme Court has also restricted the entry of non- Delhi-bound trucks registered before 2005 in the National Capital Region and hiked the pollution cess on commercial vehicles entering Delhi to somewhere between Rs 1,400 and Rs 2,600.
The ban will seriously affect vehicle manufacturers such as Volkswagen India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, as well as luxury carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz India, Audi India, Jaguar and BMW India, which have products with diesel engines over the 2,000cc capacity.
Here’s a list of all the 2000cc and above diesel-engined cars in India.
Also read: "Banning diesel vehicles in Delhi a harsh move," says Dr Pawan Goenka