Tata Motors to downsize diesel engines to counter Supreme Court ban
Around a week ago, the Supreme Court of India had extended the temporary ban on registration of cars and SUV's powered by diesel engines with cubic capacity of 2.0-litre or above in New Delhi till April 30, 2016. However, 'Where there is a will, there is a way' is an old adage that holds true even today especially for automobile manufacturers in India. Tata Motors has revealed that it is working on downsizing its diesel engines in order to work around this temporary ban.
Girish Wagh, senior vice president of programme planning and project management, passenger vehicle operation has commented that the company is re-engineering existing engines to reduce their displacement to below 2-litres. He hasn't disclosed by when the new engine will be introduced. "A completely new engine takes almost or more than a year to come, but since this is something more innovative, it will be done much faster," he further added.
This ban on registration of cars and SUV's powered by diesel engines with cubic capacity of 2.0-litre or above was first imposed in December last year. The temporary ban was supposed to end on Mach 31, 2016. Needless to say, it has hampered sales for automobile companies with big diesel engined vehicles in their portfolio like Tata Motors, Mahindra, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, to name a few.
Considering that there a complete lack of clarity as to whether the ban will get extended in New Delhi or come into effect in other cities, has made manufacturers sit up and come up with solutions to get around it. Mahindra was the first to introduce a new 1.99-litre mHawk diesel engine for the XUV500 and Scorpio. Tata Motors is the other manufacturer that has followed suit.
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