Timken is a leader in bearing technology offering reliable and efficient friction management solutions for vehicles. Timken India’s Chairman & Managing Director, Mr. Sanjay Koul, gives his quick thoughts on how BS-VI can change the Indian automotive landscape.
Excerpts:
Market impact
As an Indian I am happy that we are moving in the right direction on the emission norms. However, India is a very price sensitive market, and this could lead to a price increase for the vehicles. Timken has the technology to provide bearings which can help consume less fuel and thereby help the norms. The pre-buy of the commercial vehicles may help overcome the current downturn challenge.
Cost implications
The cost is likely to go up and the government has already helped the fleet owners by allowing increased load carrying capacity (through the axle load norm changes). So, fleets may be compensated by the extra haulage that they are carrying due to the change in norm.
Challenges
The government has been clear about this for some time now and the industry is ready for the leap-frog and migrate to the new emission norms. The change will likely get absorbed and the industry would adapt. However, this has to be supported by scrapping the old commercial vehicles quickly which is a must, both from environment point of view and for the economy of India.
Opportunities
Better technology will likely flow in and Indian manufacturing in the automotive sector may then be at par with developed nations. This would benefit our exports and also do away with older technology.