SC clamps the rich man’s wheels; Common man trampled too

The National Green Tribunal (NGT is going hammer and tongs against diesel vehicles and has called for their ban in Delhi, but in the meantime, the Supreme Court on December 15, 2016 said it was considering a ban on new diesel luxury cars  and SUVs from being registered in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) for around three to four months.

“Why should a rich man travel in a diesel car and pollute the environment,” a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur asked. The proposed restriction, he said was on an experimental basis and would be for diesel vehicles with engine capacities of over 2000cc. Existing diesel cars can continue to ply the court observed. Apart from the rich man, even common men who travel in popular and dependable taxis like the Innova will be badly affected.

The NGT has already banned registration of diesel vehicles across all engine capacities in Delhi till January 6, 2016.  The Supreme Court ban will apply in the entire Delhi NCR.  Formal order will be passed by the bench on December 16, 2015.

If a formal order comes by, then several car makers including Mahindra & Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz India, BMW India, Toyota, Volvo Auto India could all be severely affected.

Leading SUV manufacturer in India, Mahindra & Mahindra will be the worst hit. The Delhi NCR is a major market for all car makers. Mahindra’s entire fleet comprising popular models like Bolero, Quanto, Rexton, Scorpio, Thar, TUV 300, Verito, Verito Vibe, XUV 500, Xylo only has diesel engines powering them. Except for Quanto and TUV 300, all vehicles are powered by a 2 litre plus diesel engine. Isuzu Motor of Japan that makes the Isuzu D-Max and MU-7, Mitsubishi with its Pajero model and Force Motors which sells the Force One and Gurkha too have only diesel engines, but their sales in Delhi is miniscule compared to that of M&M. Car majors like Audi, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Maruti Suzuki, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota are likely to be severely affected by this diesel ban. Toyota’s Fortuner and Innova are two best sellers in the Indian car market and this ban could severely affect the Japanese company’s fortunes! Almost all of Volvo’s models sold in India have a diesel mill ( the 2 litre engine is less that 2000 cc capacity and my hence not come under the SC ban) and ironically their cars are considered to be the safest and cleanest cars in the world!

On December 11, 2015, the NGT had banned registration of new diesel vehicles till January 6, 2016 in Delhi amid rising concerns over pollution in the city. It also told the government not to renew the registration of diesel vehicles more than 10 years old.

The three prime sources of air pollution in Delhi as well as NCR, according to NGT are burning of municipal waste, dust generated by construction and vehicular pollution.  The NGT had addressed the issues related to waste burning and construction dust in its previous orders. Sadly, waste burning still continues while construction continues in full force in every corner of Delhi and NCR.

Motown India magazine compiled a list of vehicles that will be affected by this  new Supreme Court decision on banning diesel vehicles with engine capacities of 2 litre plus.

Speaking to the media a few days back, Dr. Pawan Goenka, Executive Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, noted that “diesel vehicles have become the whipping boy”  and are being seen as the “biggest villains”. “Over the years diesel fuel and vehicles have become a favourite whipping boy in our country," he said. He asked that "when our product is meeting all laws of the land how can it be banned overnight.” 

Dr Goenka’s company Mahindra & Mahindra is perhaps the only automobile major in India that has in its portfolio only diesel engines and many of its diesel vehicles like Scorpio, XUV 500, the newly launched TUV 300 and Bolero are extremely popular in Delhi in the passenger car segment.

Dr Goenka said the debate on pollution was not new and in fact started in 1999 when the Supreme Court made it clear that no distinction was to be made between diesel and petrol fuel when it came to curbing pollution. “In 1999 an application was made to the Supreme Court to ban diesel vehicles in Delhi and the court made a decision that we implement emission norms and not look at the fuel diesel or petrol. The court said that BS II norms should be implemented immediately for diesel and petrol. Therefore the question of differentiating diesel and petrol was kind of settled by the Supreme Court in 1999. Since then the emission norms were made tighter for both diesel and petrol and therefore I don’t know why once again diesel is being looked at as the culprit even thought the vehicles sold today are meeting all the emission norms being prescribed by the Government of India,” he pointed out.

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