Global NCAP, a non-profit organization which advocates for safer passenger vehicles, conducted crash tests with five cars sold on the Indian market. As expected from a market where airbags are optional extras, all five cars were awarded zero stars because they offer little to no adult occupant protection in the event of a front crash at 64 km/h (40 mph).
Let’s take the Renault Kwid as a starting point. With or without a driver airbag, the entry-level crossover produced by Renault in India failed to impress. As you can see in the first two videos featured below, the structure of the passenger compartment didn’t offer enough protection upon impact, a condition that translates to life-threatening wounds for adult occupants. As for child occupant protection, the Kwid earned two stars out of five.
According to Global NCAP, Renault “will implement further improvements to the Kwid and Global NCAP will test these new evolutions in forthcoming crash tests.” Fingers crossed Renault's Indian arm keeps its promise.
In the case of the Suzuki Maruti Celerio, the non-airbag model fared worse than the Renault Kwid, scoring one star in child occupant protection. The Hyundai Eon, a city car positioned below the European-spec i10, mirrors the crashworthiness of the Renault Kwid. The same applies for the Mahindra Scorpio compact SUV.
The biggest offender of the lot, however, is the Suzuki Maruti Eeco, a cheeky microvan that doesn’t offer airbags, not even as an option. This situation is ridiculous, more so if you consider that India is the sixth largest new car market in the world. “The latest SaferCarsforIndia results show how important it is for cars to have a body shell that can remain stable in a crash. This is an absolutely crucial pre-requisite for occupant safety together with fitment of at least front air bags,” said David Ward, the secretary general of Global NCAP.
Let the following Global NCAP crash test videos of five of the most popular cars in India be a lesson to automakers and countries that don’t understand how important minimum crash test regulations are.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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