The two popular small cars in India — Maruti Suzuki’s WagonR and Hyundai’s Santro — scored a low of two stars, while Datsun RediGo got just one star in the latest crash tests conducted by by a U.K.-based charity Global NCAP as a part of its ‘safer cars for India’ initiative.
Maruti Suzuki’s multi-purpose vehicle Ertiga received three stars in the test.
“The latest results in our #SaferCarsforIndia crash tests show a mixed safety performance, and disappointingly, there are no five star performers,” David Ward, CEO and president of Global NCAP said.
He added that Ertiga achieved a ‘creditable three stars’ for both adult and child occupant protection, but it’s obvious that more can and should be done to improve overall protection levels for cars sold in the market.
Mr. Ward said, “The Indian government’s crash test standards are clearly helping to eliminate any new zero star cars from the market, and we will continue to work with them to ensure the push of regulatory requirements is complimented by the pull of consumer awareness, encouraging the demand for ever higher levels of safety.”
In the sixth edition of the ‘safer cars for India’ initiative, Global NCAP chose the entry-level version of each model, and as a result Ertiga was the only model which was fitted with at least two airbags as standard. The other models offered only a driver airbag. “The results highlight significant differences in adult occupant protection in cars that meet the latest Indian government vehicle technical regulations,” Global NCAP said.
According to the agency, both WagonR and Santro achieved two stars for adult occupant protection and two stars for child occupant protection. Their structures were rated as ‘unstable’.
On the other hand, RediGO achieved just one star for adult occupant protection and two stars for child occupant protection. Its structure was also rated ‘unstable’.
For Ertiga, the structure was rated as ‘borderline unstable’ performance which can and should be improved, according to Global NCAP.
