Tyre-makers seek infra, time to meet new norms

The Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (Atma) on Friday sought more time to meet the new norms on rolling resistance, wet grip and rolling sound emission of tyres to enable the industry to test a large number of stock keeping units (SKUs).

The apex body also sought time for setting practical threshold limits that suit the Indian conditions.

As per a draft notification by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) the proposed standards will become applicable for all new tyre designs from October 1, 2021, and for all other existing tyre designs for passenger cars, light commercial veihcles (LCVs), and heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs) by October 1, 2022.

The Atma said implementation of the notification hinges largely on the test infrastructure, as tests like wet grip and rolling sound emission are performed on test tracks.

"The timeline for adoption of new norms will need a workable revision to enable the tyre industry to test a large number of SKUs and also to arrive at practical threshold limits that suit the Indian conditions,” Rajiv Budhraja, director general at Atma told Financial Chronicle.

Indian tyre industry manufactures one of the widest range of tyres available in the world, he pointed out.

Highlighting the need for adequate testing infrastructure, the Atma said the test tracks set up by the government need to be made fully operational for testing all types of tyres as envisaged in draft notification, which also calls for reworking the timelines.

The Atma said along with its technical wing, Indian Tyre Technical Advisory Committee, it is putting together a detailed response to the draft notification for effective implementation of the new standards without disrupting production lines.

“While rolling resistance and rolling sound of the tyres affect fuel efficiency, wet grip is related to the safety of the vehicle and we need to create data of thousands of different tyres after testing them on the Indian roads before we set any standard,” V.K. Mishra, technical director at JK Tyres told FC, adding that it needed more time.

He said the draft notification is largely based on European tyres parameters except on rolling resistance. “We have just one wet grip testing facility ICAT (International Centre for Automotive Technology) at Manesar and another one is coming up in Pune and we need all kinds of testing equipment in place,” Mishra said.