The Ministry of Road Transport and Highway has decided to make dual front airbags a mandatory vehicle safety device from April 1 this year. Up until now, only the driver-side airbag came as standard in most cars. According to the notification, the passenger-side airbag at the front will soon become compulsory.
- Manufacturers would have to install airbags for the front passenger on all cars that are rolled out after 1 April 2021.
- When it comes to the models that are already in sale, automakers would have to equip them with dual front airbags to sell them after 31 August 2021.
- Along with this, the airbags would have to comply with the AIS (Automotive Industry Standards) 145 norms.
- The Government has amended the Central Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989. The mandate follows a draft notification brought out in December 2020.
Car manufactures often don’t provide co-passenger airbags in the lower variants of their cars. This norm is sure to increase the cost of production of many automakers. The greater costs will be passed down to the customers in the form of higher prices. Therefore, this mandate aimed at promoting road safety can affect the affordability and consequently the sales of many entry-level cars. All this would be at a time when the economy is recouping and the car sales have just started to pick up.
What does this mean?
The centre’s decision is binding to all PVs with less than 8 passenger seats. Thus the M1 category vehicles that are sold now, will have to updated to include dual front airbags. So this goes for cars like Datsun Redi-GO, Mahindra Bolero, Renault Kwid, Hyundai Santro, Maruti Alto 800, Maruti WagonR and others. Until now, these cars receive only a single airbag in the base variants.
However, most cars sold in the country come with at least a single driver-side airbag. But many of them don’t get co-passenger airbags even in their higher trims. Therefore we can expect a hike in prices for the entry-level and mid-spec models of many OEMs. These cars could set you back by anything from ₹5,000 up to ₹15,000 more after September. That said, presently cars like Tata Tiago, Maruti Baleno and Maruti Swift come with dual airbags across all variants.
Airbags are nylon bags, intended to inflate upon a crash. This would literally cushion the impact of the collision and protect the occupant’s head and chest. Airbags would lessen the chances of serious injury or loss of life in case of an accident. The possibility of death as a result of a head-on collision of the co-passenger can be reduced by 32% if there is a front passenger-side airbag.
The Central Government’s decision to make dual front airbags mandatory is stemmed from the recommendations of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety. There is also a chance that other safety systems like Electronic Stability Control (ESC) could soon become standard. Nonetheless, we don’t expect this to happen until 2023.
Read about 8 Standard Car Features Now That Used To Be Optional Then in the GoMechanic Blog!
