Diesel cars’ ban not technologically justified, observes JLR CEO Ralph Speth

The Tatas-owned JLR on Wednesday expressed disappointment over the Supreme Court ban on 2,000cc and above diesel SUVs as well as cars in the national capital region saying the ban is not justified technologically. Stating that diesel engines in many respects are better than their petrol counterparts, Jaguar Land Rover Chief Executive Ralph Speth said” “I am an engineer and I am very disappointed with the ban.” “I don’t understand the rationale behind the ban. All our models are Euro-VI complaint and these vehicles clean the air, and the air they suck in is far dirtier than which comes out of it. If we ban these kinds of vehicles I don’t understand it,” Speth said in an interaction on the sidelines of the Auto Expo 2016, which got kicked off on Wednesday here. Also, if we are looking at the environment, there are many more effective ways to handle the issue such as phasing out all old vehicles and controlling other sources of pollution. To overcome the ban, JLR is looking at bringing in more petrol variants of its models, Rohit Suri, JLR India president said, adding already it sells petrol variants of the Jaguar XJ, Range Rover Sport. The company launched two petrol variants of the Jaguar XE here.