At the center of the dispute is an initiative reportedly led by Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Kirloskar, with support from Renault, to introduce a new segment for cars weighing up to 909 kg.
Almost all the vehicles that would fall under this category are currently from the Maruti portfolio. Other automakers argue that such a classification risks creating an uneven regulatory landscape and jeopardizing vehicle safety.Companies like Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai, Kia and JSW MG Motor attended the meeting with Gadkari. They said the proposed category would provide simpler emissions targets for a small segment of vehicles, penalizing the rest of the industry as it prepares for tougher standards to come into effect from April 2027.
They say a new weight-based category could encourage the market to switch to vehicles that don’t meet global safety expectations. Representatives at the meeting pointed out that cars likely to fall into the 909kg category have not received strong ratings from international safety agencies.
Allowing softer emissions standards for this group, they warned, could inadvertently promote an “architecturally unsafe” vehicle segment. Maruti Suzuki did not respond to queries, the ToI report said.
The joint industry contribution highlighted that India already has a clear classification for small cars based on length and engine capacity. Cars under four meters with engines of less than 1,200 cc for petrol and 1,500 cc for diesel are eligible for tax and regulatory benefits.
Companies have aligned long-term investment strategies with this framework. Any sudden introduction of a new category based solely on weight, they say, would disrupt product planning pipelines built over several years.
They argued that there is no comparable weight-based classification in major international markets. Creating a 909kg category, they say, would trigger an arbitrary, unprecedented regulatory shift, forcing companies to reconsider current and future projects.
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