Maruti limits use of metals like lead, mercury in its models

New Delhi: The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Monday said it has started the practice of controlling its use of substances of concern (SoC) like lead and mercury in its mass production vehicles.

“An ELV-compliant vehicle aims at limiting the use of SoC such as lead, hexavalent chromium, mercury and cadmium, among others, in vehicles. It also promotes recycling and recovery of materials used to manufacture a vehicle,” the company said in a release.

“Now, with the implementation of globally acclaimed International Material Data System (IMDS), Maruti Suzuki will be able to meet international norms and quantify recoverable and recyclable materials in its’ vehicles,” it added.

Using IMDS, data related to materials used for automobile manufacturing are collected, maintained, analysed and archived. It facilitates meeting the End of Life Vehicles (ELV) obligations placed on automobile manufacturers by national and international standards, laws and regulations.

The avoidance of SoC using the IMDS tool has been started with the recently launched WagonR and it will progressively continue for all future models. Simply put, WagonR and all upcoming models would be minimum 95% recoverable and 85% recyclable, ahead of regulations in India.

“Maruti Suzuki is always concerned about environment. We are taking a pro-active step and voluntarily putting in place global mechanism for controlling hazardous substances in our vehicles. With the implementation of globally accepted IMDS system, Maruti Suzuki will be ready to comply with ELV regulations when it is launched in India,” Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India said.

Maruti Suzuki is closely working and supporting its vendor partners to establish an efficient SoC management system as well.