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More than 24 Lakh cars were sold in India in 2020. And India is considered one of the fastest-growing markets in the World. The car industry has been growing consistently at a fast clip for the last 2 decades. A large middle class in a large population of 130 crore offers a lot of further potentials.
However, one area where India needs to address is that the country continues to rank consistently low, in terms of Safety in Cars. There are a very large number of accidents and accident fatalities in India, a concern that needs addressing. And, of late, safety has been getting a lot of attention from the Indian Customer and the Indian Auto majors.
This new concern for safety gathered sudden interest due to the release of the crash results of 5 five India-made and Made for India cars by the Global Watch Dog agency GNCAP (Global New Car Assessment Program) in January 2014.
The results were shattering for the reputation of the Indian Cars and attracted a lot of negative publicity for the Indian Auto Majors.
It forced them to act and act fast; which they did. And today, the Tata Nexon SUV and Mahindra XUV 300 achieved the highest 5* rating too. Many Indian Cars have 4* and 3* ratings.
Global NCAP ratings are based on front offset crash tests alone.
The front offset crash test involves a simulation of a head-on collision between two cars, The car is driven at 64 kmph with 40% overlap into a deform-able barrier. This is similar to two cards of the same weight, both moving at 50 kmph, crashing against each other … head-on.
In India, for simulation tests, the car is driven at 56 kmph. All cars made from 2017 must mandatorily meet front offset and side-impact crash requirements. All the Indian Majors agreed to meet this requirement.
However, Mr. Alok Jaitley, Senior Vice President, Maruti Suzuki stressed the need of importance of the need for Safer Roads and regulations to credibility to the Safety Certifications under real-time conditions.
The cars are rated by GNCAP on:
Adult Protection Rating is determined from frontal impact, lateral impact, and whiplash impact; and the protection that is offered by the vehicle.
Child Protection Rating is measured on 3 parameters :
Protection Offered by the Restraint System in the front and side-impact test.
Vehicles’ ability to accommodate restraints of various sizes and designs
Provisions for safe transport to children, in case of an accident.
The Top 10 safest cars in India, as per the GNCAP ratings are :
#) Three cars have achieved 5 star ratings for Adult safety : Tata Altroz , Tata Nexon and Mahindra XUV 300.
The Bottom 10 safest cars in India, as per the GNCAP ratings are :
#) The cars with the lowest safety ratings have 5 cars with zero safety ratings for adult protection.
The Cars with "Zero" safety rating, as per the GNCAP ratings are :
#) A Total of 6 cars came under this category of ZERO adult protection rating.
However, the point to be noted is that even cars that have been rated “0” on the GNCAP ratings are allowed to be sold in India, as of now.
CONCLUSION
Before We jump the gun and conclude. We need to hear both ends of the story. On one end, few OEMs have to say that they are meeting the safety norms of the government and the customers need to be happy with the fact that the cars are meeting the statutory requirement. They have also refused to accept the GNCAP rating.
On the other hand, we have a few OEMs saying that the GNCAP rating has its credibility when it reports these tests and the tests are valid. They find the need to go beyond the regulatory requirements and meet these safety norms.
Disclaimer: The objective of this article is to elaborate on the safest car rating of GNCAP, and not to promote or discourage any brand. We have elaborated the report and have made an attempt to explain the ratings of the safest cars.