Maruti strikes back at rivals as small car debate intensifies
Maruti’s leadership said the company remains committed to reviving the small-car segment even as it expands its SUV lineup.
New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki on Monday renewed its pitch for policy support for small cars, urging the government to retain relaxations for these vehicles in the next phase of Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (Cafe 3) norms. The carmaker argued that most global markets offer structured relief for compact cars, even as several homegrown and foreign automakers have taken a contrary view.
At a virtual press conference, Maruti’s leadership said the company remains committed to reviving the small-car segment even as it expands its sports utility vehicle (SUV) lineup, pointing out that major markets—from China and Europe to Korea, Japan and the US—use weight- or footprint-based relaxations in their efficiency frameworks.
“More than 90% of the world automobile market provides structured relaxations for small cars," said Rahul Bharti, senior executive officer, corporate affairs at Maruti.
With industry discussions at the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) failing to produce a unified stance, the rift has widened ahead of Cafe 3 norms that are expected to kick in from April 2027.
Maruti's statement comes days after Reuters reported that Hyundai, Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra have written to the government to argue against weight-based relief in the next iteration of Cafe 3 norms.
As per a draft released on 25 September, the government plans to provide additional benefits in calculation of final emission of a carmaker if they have models weighing below 909 kg.
Arguing his case, Bharti said, “China does it at about 1090 kg; Europe actually relaxes targets below 1,115 kg; Korea at 1,100 kg; Japan follows a continuous parabolic curve where the delta in target keeps on reducing with weight. USA does it on footprint of 41 square feet… Are they (other original equipment manufacturers) saying that policy makers of all these countries in Europe, the US, China, Korea, Japan all have taken arbitrary decisions?"
He said Maruti knows it has the responsibility being the market leader to take care of all car segments. "While some companies may want to avail of only the high-demand segments, it is Maruti Suzuki’s responsibility to take care of all segments," Bharti noted at the press meet.
According to the norms, carmakers must improve the efficiency of their portfolios by cutting down the average emissions of their models.
Industry split widens
During discussions at the country's premier auto lobby Siam, the carmakers were not able to come on the same page on relief for small cars and did not send a concrete proposal to the government to seek relief for the same.
Shailesh Chandra, managing director and chief executive at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd and president of Siam, argued on 14 November that weight-based exemptions diluted the push toward cleaner technologies and do not address safety concerns. He urged policymakers to avoid such relief and adhere to the definition of small cars under the goods and services tax (GST) regime, which classifies cars less than 4 metres as small cars.
He had said no small car meets the highly-rated safety tests and pushing manufacturers to make such vehicles through relief in emission norms will not be good.
On the issue of the weight math, Bharti said the 3-gram benefit given by the government in the final calculation of norms is a minuscule advantage for small cars, adding that if targets under Cafe 3 are not fair, small cars could be discontinued in future.
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