The Global — New Car Assessment Program (Global-NCAP) released its latest test results on Thursday. This not-for-profit, backed by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has been testing India-manufactured cars for a since 2014 and according to the latest results, particularly of the maruti-Suzuki Vitara Brezza and Tata Nexon have both scored four out of five stars for front driver and passenger safety in an front-offset crash test at 64 kilometers per hour. The Renault Lodgy however scored zero stars, reminiscent of the test failure suffered by the previous Renault Kwid. The French carmaker in a response stated that their cars adhere to all current safety norms prescribed in India, and they would adhere to future safety norms. Currently, cars in India do not have to meet strict crash-safety norms, however from mid-2019, several safety features will be made mandatory on all cars sold in India, and all cars will have to pass strict front-offset crash tests. Most carmakers have already put safety features such as Airbags and Anti-Lock Brakes (ABS) into all new models.
The front-offset crash is the most common sort of high-speed impact seen on roads. Over 150,000 Indians died on roads and highways in 2017 according to official statistics. For many years, Indian carmakers resisted putting safety features on their cars due to the costs involved, but increasingly carmakers, with some exceptions have started loading their models with safety features. Some are adding six or seven airbags across the model range on their cars and the Government has indicated that Electronic Stability Programs (ESP) which uses a computer to reduce the risk of loss of control will be made mandatory as well.