Indian Car And SUV Ground Clearance Measurement Norms Change

The governing body for automotive testing and measurements in India, ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India) has changed the norms and mandates for measuring ground clearance for vehicles sold in India. The new norms state that the car (in all body-styles) is to be tested in GVW conditions or Gross Vehicle Weight conditions. This means that the car needs to be weighed down to general usage levels which would result in the ground clearance being lower. The ground clearance will be measured from the lowest fixed point of the car to the ground to get the new measurements.

(From now on, all cars and SUVs will have their ground clearance measured in GVW conditions)

The current norms that were applicable till recently were to measure the car from the ground to the lowest point of the car in unladen weight conditions. The car in its kerb weight form was tested instead of the new rules that measure the ground clearance in gross weight form. Incidentally, the new rule is actually the original methodology that the ARAI used to use to measure ground clearance till mid-2013 when different rules came into play.

So what does this really mean? Well, technically, nothing. Although on paper most cars and SUVs will now have a much lower ground clearance figure, in reality, there will be no real change to these vehicles. For example, the Toyota Fortuner with the new measurement is listed as having 184 millimetres of ground clearance whereas the earlier figure with an unladen weight test was above 220 millimetres. Strangely, India is one of the few countries that use the GVW method of testing ground clearance. Most other countries, including the Europe uses an unladen method to check on ground clearance.