Bharat NCAP Approved – Maruti Chairman Reaction!?

Bharat NCAP finally gets the greenlight from Nitin Gadkari, India’s Road Transport & Highways minister. Bharat NCAP, or Bharat New Car Assessment Program. In this blog, we will check all the protocols on which the Bharat NCAP will be based, how it will affect the car market in India, and also find what Maruti’s top official has to say about this.

Bharat NCAP – To Be Based On GNCAP

Nitin Gadkari, via a series of tweets, announced that the Bharat NCAP will be aligned with the Global NCAP protocols. He also states that this would allow OEMs to get their cars crash-tested at India’s own facilities.

Talking about Nitin Gadkari, here is a similar post on a decision taken by him! – The Speed Limits May increase, Says Nitin Gadkari

Test ratings will be scored on basis of stars awarded, on a scale of one to five. It is pretty much identical to the process followed by GNCAP.

Bharat NCAP will only test those passenger vehicles will be tested that are up to 8 seaters, and have a weight of fewer than 3500 kgs. Further, stars will be awarded based on Child + Adult protection, along with marks for active and passive safety features onboard.

Also, Check Out – Kia Carens Scores 3 Starts In Recent Global NCAP Crash Test

In other words, just like India has its own body of certifying mileage of cars, i.e ARAI, similarly, Bharat NCAP will now test cars based on their safety, and then announce the same to the public.

This move comes soon after the ‘Aaatmirbhar’ call. This is a plausible move taken by the Indian government to make people aware of how important safety ratings are. At the same time make India’s crash tests self-sufficient, by enabling carmakers to crash test their cars in-house. Earlier carmakers had to this via third parties, to get their crash test results.

Also, Check Out – 10 Exclusive Made In India Cars For Foreign Markets

Maruti Chairman:  Bharat NCAP Shouldn’t Be Compulsory

Maruti Suzuki Chairman RC Bhargava was concerned about the ill effects of launching this program, which might hold. He feels that people irrespective of their crash test rating shouldn’t be demotivated to not buy a car just because it has a bad safety rating. This is due to the fact that most people buying entry-level cars upgrade from 2-wheelers. And comparing them to any car is always much safer.

According to a post from the Hindu Business, he quoted the following – “NCAP shouldn’t be mandatory, as it is different from the European market, we cannot follow the same road safety measure of Europe, We must look at what can be done to provide better transport for 2 Wheeler users.”

Also, Check Out – Maruti Spresso Scores Zero Stars In GNCAP Crash test Ratings!

This was an expected reaction in order to defend Maruti’s name from its poor image of crash test ratings. These days carmakers are trying to make safety a selling point for their cars (which has worked very well for them). The most common examples are Tata Motors and M&M.