Global NCAP reveals jolting truth about best-sellers

Ask people from around the world and they might tell you that Indian drivers are among the most dangerous. The number of accidents and near misses that take place every day is staggering to think about. Recently however, the police has clamped down on some aspects of dangerous driving in some major cities. Still, driving down any highway, you can see the debris of many a destroyed car or overturned truck with its front smashed in.

Premium cars and SUVs sold in the Indian market come with safety features such as airbags and crumple zones to mitigate some of the injuries to passengers, but the latest Global NCAP test has unearthed rather disturbing news. Some of the cars tested — ubiquitous on Indian roads — have failed the Global NCAP and the UN Basic Safety test (UN-R94).

The Global NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) is meant to test how a car fares in an accident and how much injury the driver and passengers suffer. The tests conducted were frontal collisions at 56kmph and 64kmph. Two versions of each car tested were brought to Germany including the Tata Nano, Maruti Suzuki Alto 800, Hyundai i10, Ford Figo and Volkswagen Polo — all Indian market cars. They all received zero out of a possible five stars in both tests, which doesn’t bode well for buyers here in India. The i10 and the Grand i10 are both made in India for export to other countries, yet the i10 fails while the Grand i10 receives a decent Euro NCAP rating.

The Polo managed to protect its rear passengers during a frontal collision and got a three-star rating, while the Alto and Figo managed a two-star rating and the i10 a single star. The Tata Nano completely failed the test, managing to achieve nothing more than a zero at both speeds.

The UN-R94 test isn’t the industry standard in India but is applied in Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia and the EU. The Ford Figo and the VW Polo with airbags were the only two to pass the test by maintaining structural integrity. The rest of the cars gathered for the test failed miserably. It must be noted that if the Polo and Figo were tested with the optional airbags that they get abroad, they would pass both the NCAP and the UN basic safety test.

Volkswagen is the first manufacturer who stepped up and introduced dual front airbags in even the lowest variant of its premium hatchback, the Polo. The driver and front passenger safety rating goes up from a zero all the way to four with the introduction of airbags. A marginal price hike of 2.7 per cent is all that is necessary to achieve this rating, which means that the base Polo variant will now cost about Rs 5.3 lakh, up from the current Rs 5.17 lakh ex-showroom Mumbai.

Reactions from the industry were sharp, claiming that the tests performed were more severe than those applied to cars sold in other markets, and that the test procedures did not take Indian conditions into account.

The Government of India has safety regulations in place, which manufacturers claim are being followed, though it seems that they fall short of global standards. India’s road infrastructure is growing quickly and regulation needs to keep pace. We are no longer limited to the crawling pace of city traffic. Expressways and the Golden Quadrilateral project allow for long stretches of high-speed driving, increasing the risk of injury, should an accident take place.

One often hears the argument about the market being unwilling to absorb the additional cost of safety. One could apply the same logic to helmet laws — those cost money too, but are still mandatory (woefully, not everywhere or not enforced properly).

Following VW’s example, other manufacturers could and should offer additional safety features for the benefit of motorists. Manufacturers would be loathe to do this, as the additional cost would be a deterrent to sales. That is, unless the industry as a whole agreed to raise safety standards, a cartel for safety, if you will. That, however, would require a gentleman’s agreement in the absence of stringent regulation.