Progress and Room For Improvement

Last week, new assessment criteria for 2024 were uploaded to the Gobar NCRAP website with changes broadly including:

• greater emphasis on active safety technologies for vulnerable road users

• tougher requirements for rear seat safety and side impact protection

• protection of critical body parts in independent consumer crash tests now included in the assessment

Today, Gobar NCRAP publishes the first ratings for 15 segments of Indian cars against the new assessment criteria, bringing the website a step closer to its aim of providing consumers with objective information about the safety of the vehicles they purchase in one place.

Minicars and city cars are stumped by the new criteria. All of these models must meet new crashworthiness legislation, but as expected, regulatory compliance is the norm in this segment, consistent with their positioning as upgrades for users of powered two-wheelers. Consequently, most of these models offer only marginal crash protection when judged against tougher consumer test criteria and offer very few safety features beyond what they're required to by law. Despite some pleasant surprises like electronic stability control, tyre pressure monitors and rear safety belt reminders, most cars wind up with the lowest rating - Not Recommended. The best performer, the MG Comet, is the most expensive, and even that makes do with the second-lowest rating of Fair and still does not offer electronic stability control (unlike its Indonesian cousin). Overall, it's clear that while small cars have come a long way in terms of safety, there is still a lot of room for improvement and consumers looking for state-of-the-art safety should look elsewhere.

Most subcompact cars - hatchbacks, MPVs and SUVs - also make do with minimal safety other than that required by law. The Suzuki Swift and Ignis, which last year gained standard electronic stability control and rear safety belt reminders, are now joined by the Renault Kiger, all of which still earn the second-lowest overall rating of Fair. Not so lucky are the Kiger's Japanese cousin the Nissan Magnite, which still does not have belt reminders for the rear seats, and its three-row stablemate the Triber which doesn't have ISOFIX anchorages. The worst of the lot is the ageing Maruti Suzuki Eeco, still a popular seller and commonly used for the transport of schoolchildren and for last-mile deliveries. On the other side of things are the Hyundai Grand i10 Nios and Exter, which were fitted with many modern safety features after an embarrassing spectacle in 2022, and the Maruti Suzuki Fronx, confirmed for local consumer crash testing by Bharat NCAP.

Many compact cars are derivatives of small and subcompact cars, and as such there is a similar spread of results, especially among sedans. There are also mixed results among hatchbacks and SUVs, with some like the Tata Altroz clearly having been engineered to only score highly in narrow consumer tests and little else, and some like the ancient Mahindra Bolero being nearly completely devoid of safety features. But the breakthrough comes in the form of the most affordable vehicles to earn Best Pick in their segments - the Tata Nexon, Tata Nexon.ev and Kia Sonet, all recently updated.

Midsize sedans, SUVs and MPVs offer respectable safety in general, with most ranging from Fair to Recommended and a few even earning Best Pick. The only ones to earn Not Recommended are the austere off-roader Force Gurkha and Mahindra Scorpio Classic, lower variants of the Mahindra Thar (which struggle with active safety in general), the Citroën C3 Aircross and long-forgotten Mahindra Marazzo which have minimal safety features, and the Mahindra XUV400 and lower variants of the Honda Elevate, which offer very poor rear seat safety.

Large SUVs and three-rows in general don't offer the level of safety equipment expected of cars of their price. Many like the Jeep Compass and Mahindra's popular Scorpio-N and XUV700 struggle with outdated rear-seat safety and some, including the MG Hector, don't offer electronic stability control on some variants, concerning for large SUVs where the technology serves the additional role of reducing rollover risk. The BYD e6, recently updated Tata Safari and Harrier, Toyota's evergreen Innova Crysta and Maruti Suzuki's new Invicto put up an applaudable show, but only one - the most expensive variant of the Toyota Innova Hycross - achieves Best Pick. This is not the case with premium SUVs, most of which earn Best Pick barring the end-of-life VW Tiguan which has good passive safety technologies but doesn't offer the latest in active safety.

How to use the ratings (see bottom)