'Illogical' prejudice against diesel vehicles, says Force Motors

Force Motors has pointed out unscientific and "ill-founded prejudices" against diesel-powered commercial vehicles and has sought free movement of such vehicles inside cities.

In its Annual Report for 2020-21, the Pune-based company, which sells a range of diesel-powered vehicles in the commercial, passenger and agricultural segment, noted that there was no point in restricting movement of diesel vehicles when they met the country's mandated norms.

"The ill-founded local area restrictions on use of diesel powered vehicles that actually meet the nationally mandated norms, are illogical. While the movement for achieving zero emissions by way of achieving full electric traction for all segments of automobiles is at least a decade away, the diesel vehicles that meet the mandated norms are an excellent solution even in the inner cities," the automaker noted.

The unscientific and ill-founded prejudices in this regard need to be addressed, it added.

Fearing rise in air pollution, several states do not allow movement of commercial vehicles with diesel engines to play inside the cities or some parts where they encourage use of environment friendly vehicles.

Last month, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari asked vehicle manufacturers to discourage production and sale of diesel engine vehicles, and urged them to promote other technologies.

Addressing industry body SIAM's annual convention virtually, Gadkari had noted that the government is committed to delivering vehicles with flex engines that give the users an option to run a vehicle on either 100 per cent petrol or 100 per cent bio-ethanol.

Bullish on the tour and travels segment, Force Motors noted that the tour, travel and hospitality industry had a great future in the country going ahead.

The company also informed its shareholders that it was possible for the evolution of the tour, travel and hospitality industry in India to international standards.

The evolving improved infrastructure in major pilgrimage locations in India, the rapidly modernising road transport augurs well for enhanced domestic tourism, the company noted.

"Besides encouraging local economies , both the international and domestic tourism will spur the spread of a wide variety of service requirements in industry, therein offering significant improvement in market size and opportunities," Force Motors said.

The company sells models like Gurkha,Trax, Traveller in the commercial and passenger vehicle space. It also sells tractors like Balwan 400 and Abhiman.

The company also exports its range of products to various countries in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Force Motors also supplies engines and other components to various leading automakers.

Till date, it has supplied over 1,15,000 engines and over 1,00,000 axles to Mercedes Benz India and over 44,000 powertrains to BMW for their various products in the country.