In the wake of rising safety norms, Maruti Suzuki is working to provide safety features, at least as an option, on all its mass-market vehicles right from the Alto.
The government of India had been getting a lot of flak for not being too strict when it comes to vehicular safety and one fine day the officials woke up and passed a new notification that all new cars must be equipped with airbags and ABS by 2017. Certain companies like Toyota and Volkswagen already made these features standard on all variants of their vehicles while certain other companies are in the process of doing so.
Now it has been learnt that Maruti Suzuki will also implement the usage of ABS and airbags in all its vehicles, much before the deadline. Company officials are currently studying the possibility and a concrete decision will be taken very soon. The automaker aims to offer these safety features as an option on all variants of all their vehicles. Maruti has a lot of mass-market hatchbacks in its portfolio and since the market is very cost sensitive, the company will be offering the features as an option first.
Maruti Suzuki launched the S-Cross premium crossover a few months back while the much-awaited Baleno premium hatchback will soon be launched. Both the vehicles come with airbags and ABS on every variant, which is an excellent move by the automaker. The Alto 800, Alto K10, Celerio, Swift, Swift DZire and Ciaz come with these safety features only on the top variants in most cases while certain models get ABS in the mid variants.
The newly-launched 2015 Ertiga facelift also gets dual front airbags and ABS as optional features right from the base trim. This move to provide safety features on every vehicle will be highly applauded. A lot of accidents happen in India every year and many times people suffer injuries or lose their lives due to the lack of safety tech. All new cars from 2017 will have to undergo a mandatory crash test and ARAI has developed a new facility in Chakan, Pune for the same.
