Mahindra left with 18,000 unsold BS-III vehicles

Home-grown carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra has an inventory of around 18,000 BS-III vehicles, ranging from two-wheelers to trucks. The carmaker has issued a statement in this regard to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Carmakers across India raced against time to clear their stocks after the Supreme Court banned the sale of vehicles that did not comply with Bharat Stage IV emission norms from April 1, 2017.

Mahindra, like others, offered a discount up to 15 percent and could clear more than half of its BS-III inventory worth a little over Rs 2,000 crore before the ban. It now plans to export some of the stock and convert some to BS-IV. 

"The company and industry has incurred a loss because of the heavily discounted sale that it had to do on March 30 and 31, 2017. The company may be able to export some of these vehicles which will not incur much of a cost; and convert some of these vehicles to BS-IV, which will have a cost of as little as Rs 3,000-4,000 [on each] for some of the small commercial vehicles to as much as Rs 200,000 [on each] for heavy commercial vehicles,” the statement to BSE read. It has also informed that some of the vehicles can neither be exported nor converted to BS-IV.

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision on March 29, Mahindra said the unexpected ban had perplexed the industry and would have a one-time material impact even on the company. The largest utility vehicle maker argued that the law on BS-IV emission standards implementation from April 1 provided for allowing the sale and registration of BS-III vehicles manufactured before April 1, 2017, in the same manner as all such transitions have occurred over the last 12 years.