Carmakers in a Catch-22 situation, face bumpy ride to BS-VI roll-out

Companies will need to stop producing BS-IV vehicles at least by January-February of 2020 to avoid the stockpiling of unsold inventory

With less than 24 months left for India’s automobile industry to switch to Bharat Stage (BS)-VI emission norms, manufacturers are in a catch-22 situation. Even as the production and research and development (R&D) departments of automobile firms are bracing up for a big technological leap, most of them are faced with a dilemma whether to launch models slated for 2019 with BS-IV or BS-VI technology.
 
The confusion stems from demand uncertainty – Whether customers will advance purchases to beat the price hike, thereby bumping up demand in the run-up to the introduction of the BS-VI standards, or whether they