‘Innova, Fortuner demand will be hit’

To discuss the recent developments regarding the partial ban on diesel cars in Delhi, Bloomberg TV India caught up with Vikram Kirloskar, Vice-Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

What’s your immediate reaction to the ruling of the Supreme Court on diesel vehicles in Delhi?

The Supreme Court has given a judgement with all good intentions, that the pollution in Delhi should be brought down.

We certainly honour it and respect it and we will do our best to abide by it. There is of course a short-term impact; we do sell a good numbers of diesel cars beyond 2,000 cc in Delhi, which are the Innova and the Fortuner. Their demand is certainly going to get affected. Now we have to go back and see how best we can adhere to the emission norms.

We are already at BS-IV, so until the new fuels come out — whether BS-V or BS-VI — we will make sure we adhere by those norms.

How much of your total sales are in the 2,000 cc category? And how much of this is concentrated in the Delhi region?

I think 8-9 per cent of our sales go to Delhi. And about 5-6 per cent of that is above 2,000 cc.

The fear out here is this precedent could possibly spill over into some of the other cities and other regions as well. Does it look likely that other cities could consider such curbs?

If you look at the whole country the direction is to address environmental issues. India’s stand in the latest COP meeting in France has been to address the issue of environment. So I think it is a very positive sign and I am totally for that. I think these kinds of issues will start going into different cities in the future definitely.

If it is successful in Delhi, I am sure other cities will look at it. The Supreme Court has given a decision on cars, trucks, etc. It has also given an idea on old vehicles and has given some direction on burning of trash and various other issues.

Vehicles are only one source of the pollution problem; there are other problems as well.

We will abide by the decision. I think it is in the interest of the country. We will work hard to solve the issue from our side.

Will you be looking at changing your strategy, perhaps increase your focus on CNG?

The strategy for India also depends on fuel availability. First thing regarding cars is we have BS-IV in many cities and BS-IV is a good standard. It should get extended across the country.

On BS-V and BS-VI, some guidelines have come out. I hope there is no change in them so that we can stick with our plan. It is most important that there are no changes.

This applies both to refineries as well as the car companies. Refineries have to get a new fuel out by 2019, and simultaneously we will get our new cars by 2019 that are BS-V compliant.

I think one of the issues perhaps the court may like to re-look at is the issue of diesel and petrol at the BS-V and BS-VI levels. We will find more from experience as we go along.

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