BS IV norms will increase two-wheeler cost

According to a report issued by ICRA which is a credit rating system, the implication of BS IV norms for two-wheeler will increase two-wheeler cost by almost 20 per cent 

Two-wheeler launches have been a bit slow this year and there is a good reason for that. Given the rising pollution levels, the Government had decided to imply BS IV norms for two-wheelers too. This has resulted in manufacturers upgrading their powerplants to the upcoming emission norm rather than developing new products. While the BS IV emission norms will be beneficial in reducing pollution, it will come at a cost.  For adhering with the new emission norms, manufacturers will have to adopt alternate technologies which will result in the products cost escalating by 10 to 20 per cent according to ICRA which is a credit rating agency. So in the end it will be the consumer who will have to shell out extra cash and we can see the price of almost all the mass produced products increasing by almost 20 per cent next year. 

All new two-wheelers launched after April, 2016 have to be BS IV compliant while the existing models will have to adhere to BS IV emission norms from April, 2017 across India. The Honda CB Hornet 160R was the first mass produced motorcycle to be BS IV compliant and it was launched in December last year. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has also announced that it plans to make all two-wheelers BS VI emission compliant by 2020 and the only way manufacturers could meet the strict norms will be by the use of electronic fuel injection (EFI). 

Currently a fuel injected variant carries a premium of almost Rs 6,000 to 9,000 over a carburettor model. A fuel injection system has benefits like lower emissions, easy cold starts and longer life of the motor but despite the added benefits manufacturers haven’t adopted it in mass market two-wheelers owing to the cost conscious Indian buyers. But with the demand increasing for the fuel injection systems it is expected that price of the EFI system will also come down owing to mass production.