Japanese car major Honda wants a stable road map for automobile industry in India, amid uncertainty over big diesel cars and SUVs following the Supreme Court’s verdict, saying sudden changes in policy affect plans involving large investments.

“As an industry, we expect stability, transpar-ency and clear road map as far as policies are concerned. It affects our confidence when suddenly the playing field changes altogether. Give us a road map and then stick to it as large investments are involved,” Honda Cars India senior vice-president (marketing and sal-es) Janeshwar Sen said.

Honda Cars India, which was manufacturing petrol cars primarily in the country till a couple of years back, invested heavily in diesel technology when demand began to shift towards diesel cars due to wide gap in petrol and diesel prices.

When asked about company’s strategy if the apex court levied extra cess on diesel cars, Mr Sen said: “If that happens, everybody will have to adhere to the judgement. Even we will have to adapt according to the market conditions. We will make what market will demand.”

Pollution from cars constituted just a small part of the entire problem and need is to look into the matter in a cohesive manner, he said.

Prior to the Supreme Court ban, the governme-nt had announced infrastructure cess of one per cent on petrol/ LPG/CNG driven vehicles of length not exceeding 4 meter and engine capacity not exceeding 1,200cc.