Need to have full game plan before rolling out Euro VI: Renault India chief

Concerned about the growth prospects in a key market like India, Renault India's Country CEO and Managing Director Sumit Sawhney expressed the need for a holistic approach in designing the policy framework to reduce vehicular pollution.

Calling for a full-game plan before implementation of Euro 6 emission norms in 2020, Sawhney underlined key challenge of availability of the higher grade fuel across the country.

“The government wants us something to do in four years, which Europe took 11 years to do — moving from Euro IV to Euro VI. We moved to Euro IV but that is still not available across the country.

“Technology-wise, a Euro IV car would still run on Euro III fuel, but that is not possible in Euro VI. So, the higher grade fuel has to be made available across the country at least a year before the final rollout in 2020,” said Sawhney here on the sidelines of the launch of all new Renault Duster with AMT.

Sawhney also raised concerns about the irregular policy changes in the name of environment protection.

“To move from Euro III to Euro IV we had to invest a lot of money for technology. A Euro IV car emits one-fourth the emissions than a Euro III car. Hence, from the point of environment protection even Euro 4 is much environment-friendly," he said.

Sawhney further mentioned that Renault is confident of increasing its market share in India from 4.4 per cent till April 2016, to over 5 per cent by 2017.

The company is also planning to launch 1-litre Qwid model in the first half of current calendar year, while AMT Qwid is planned for the launch in second half.

However, a ban on new registration of diesel cars above 2000 cc in Delhi has already caused nervousness among the automobile players.

“Even though the automotive sector isn't the biggest polluter, there is a need to prepare a full-game plan. As a country we need to have a scrappage policy of old cars, which are replaced with new cars. They also contribute to environment challenges seen caused by the industry," he added.

Commenting on the trend for petrol and diesel cars, Sawhney mentioned that the difference between prices of petrol and diesel has reduced to ₹10 a litre, from ₹26 a litre earlier.

“At the price difference of ₹26, even small cars (sub-four meters) were viable with incremental cost of ₹70,000-80,000 for diesel model.

“The price gap has now reduced to ₹10, so investing about 17-20 per cent more for a small car is no longer viable. But when we talk of cars costing above ₹ 8 lakh, paying ₹80,000 or 9 per cent extra on total cost of diesel car still makes a viable proposition," said Sawhney.

He pointed out that in sub-four meter cars there would be increased trend towards petrol and for cars above ₹7 lakh, there would still be a trend for diesel.