Automotive Round Table on Getting Ready for BS V1

 System Driven, Performance Engineered Products for the Automotive Industry

 SAEINDIA Automotive Board organized the 6th Automotive Round Table spearheaded by SAEINDIA Northern Section and the program was conducted on 14^th July at Le Meridien Gurgaon. It was hosted by Siemens PLM Limited.

Automotive Round Table was well attended by Industry professionals drawn from diverse segments of the Automotive Industry including Managing Committee members Mr.Balraj Bhanot,Ms.Pamela Tikku and Mr.I V Rao(Panellist) and hosted by Mr.Suman Bose,MD of Siemens India.

The program began with welcome address by Dr.Arunkumar Sampath who also touched briefly on the importance of the topic and the need to brainstorm for addressing the challenges posed by Government regulations with a limited time frame to comply with it. He also mentioned this is 3rd in the series of Automotive Round Table, second time in succession jointly organized along with Siemens PLM. The objective is to analyze the industry trends and evolve appropriate action plan to move forward.

Mr.Purushotam Panda Vice-President MSIL presented the keynote address pointing out the complexity of the task involved and how a large volume manufacturer with multiple products in its range like Maruti will have to grapple with the challenges in compliance within the limited time frame. He explained the difficulties arising from multiple sequenced regulations with varied requirements like co2, RDE and safety adding to complexity of BS VI. He also remarked that the number of applications across industry is grossly out of proportion with skilled manpower available. His presentation set the context for panellists to bring out various facets of the BS V1 preparations and compliance.

Dr. Christian Teich,Vice-President R&D Bosch India Ltd. made the second keynote presentation on “Impact of upcoming emission and safety regulations to auto suppliers in India”. In essence: The fast sequence of fundamental new regulations calls for disruptive change of technology approach. To meet the new BS6 emission norms a holistic optimization of the engine-, combustion, fuel injection, air and exhaust system of a combustion engine has to be performed to enable lowest emissions and best performance at good value proposition.

Challenge is the high innovation degree of the technology changes and the short remaining time span of less than 3 years. OEM’s as well as automotive suppliers have to adapt their portfolio in a fast manner, R&D resources should be increased and competencies have to be built up. No doubt – the fast introduction speed is putting the automotive industry under pressure but the disruptive technology change includes the chance to re- define actively future mobility: more efficient, safer and with new opportunities for exports. Precondition for success is a good cooperation between OEM’s and suppliers.

There were two presentations from Siemens on their preparedness to help Industry in compliance with BS VI regulations in terms of products, services, simulation software etc.

Dr.Arunkumar Sampath made a presentation on FISITA World Congress 2018 and likened it to Olympics for automotive industry brought by SAEINDIA for the 1st time to India based on the successful APAC 16 organized in 2011 by SAEINDIA. He invited industry and leaders to participate in the event and make it a grand success as it is a prestigious event for the automotive world.

In the panel discussion moderated by Mr.Deepangshu Sharma,AutotechReview, we had stalwarts like Mr.I.V.Rao,Advisor to MSIL,Mr.DineshTyagi,Director iCAT,Mr.VishnuMathur,Director General of SIAM, and Mr.S.M.Vaidya,E.D.(Operations).

Mr.I.V.Rao also felt that enforcing BS V1 within a short time frame is a huge and complex task and will find the industry gasping with preparations to conform to it. The ecosystem has not been created for a smooth change over and the complexity will seriously undermine the capability of industry to cope with the challenges.

He added that it will be a huge challenge for OEM’s to make their products BS VI compliant and the impact on terms of investment would also be substantial with many small and medium scale manufacturers crumbling under it.

Mr.Dinesh Tyagi explained what exactly BS VI means to the industry in terms of tighter emission norms, real driving emissions, OBD, In use compliance etc.

He also explained various steps taken by ARAI, GARC and iCAT to create the supporting infrastructure to test the systems and products and how they would be able to help the industry to get ready for compliance with the regulations.

Mr.VishnuMathur said that while industry has committed to GoI to take on the challenge of leapfrogging to BS VI by 2020, he put forward a fundamental question as to “what are we getting ready for?” Are we getting ready for “manufacturing BS VI vehicles from 1^st April 2020 or are we getting ready for “registering BS VI vehicles from that date? Mr. Mathur stated that the two were very different and a change in the date of manufacturing to date of registration would have a big impact on the state of preparedness of the industry to meet BS VI norms as it would further compress the time available. Furthermore, there were some categories of vehicles peculiar to India where BS VI solutions do not exist even in Europe for which development work has to be done ab-initio in India. The auto industry, through the SIAM platform has been closely interacting with Government and seeking clarity in these matters.

Mr. Mathur also mentioned that the issue of RDE would also become quite critical as some quarters, especially NGOs have been demanding that RDE should become applicable from 2020 itself which would not give time to industry to gather adequate data on the BS VI driving cycles in the country. Also there was a misconception with these NGOs that RDE would replace the PUC System for checking pollution from in-use vehicles, which needs to be corrected.

He stated that SIAM is in constant dialogue with GoI to voice the concerns of the industry to policy makers and is requesting GOI to address the various concerns.

Mr.S.M .Vaidya stated that the Indian oil would be ready to supply BS VI compliant fuels by 1sr April 2020 at the retail outlets as per plans to offer products to the industry conforming to BS V1 regulations.

He mentioned IOCL is exploring the feasibility to supply BS VI Complaint fuel at a few select pumps in major metros ahead of the April 2020 deadline.

IOCL has already supplied BS VI diesel to certain automobile companies like Honda motors and Mahindra and Mahindra from their Mathura Refinery last year for their engine testing purposes .

There was active and purposeful interaction from audience and penetrating questions from the moderator to the panellists on various aspects of BS V1 regulations and compliance and he also pointed out the the first report from Mr.Mashelkar and the progress so far including the sudden enforcement within short time frame.

There was lively and active interaction from the audience and interesting and relevant comments from the moderator who raised the right concerns and issues for the panellists to respond making the evening truly an enriching experience.

Mr.Gautam Dutta, Director Marketing Siemens proposed the vote of thanks for a well rounded meeting making the informed audience enlightened further on the topical issue.