ARAI have just gone ahead and introduced new norms to measure ground clearance of vehicles in India. Till date, the ground clearance measurement was carried out with a vehicle at its kerb weight or with an unladen vehicle. However, thanks to the new norms, ground clearance measurements must now be done with the vehicle loaded to its maximum authorised gross vehicle weight (GVW).
Ground clearance is one of the most looked at specifications in India and it is measured as the height from the lowermost part of the vehicle with respect to ground level. A vehicle suspension compresses under load and thus ground clearance values will be lower with a fully loaded vehicle. With the new measurement process, a vehicle’s minimum ground clearance emerges as against the earlier maximum clearance value.
Fiat has released the new ground clearance values for their models, for example, the Fiat Avventura now has a value of 156mm as against the earlier value of 205mm. However, some of the manufacturers are still showing the old numbers in the specifications of their models.
