Safety is not a luxury, it is a necessity.
Safety is a feature not many look for, but desperately need in our road conditions. The Indian car market sees nearly 3 lakh passenger cars being sold every month on average. As more and more companies try to enter and prove their mettle and attempt to transcend their competition, the focuses on safety should not be lost.
Every year the fatalities due to road accidents keep on rising. While our lack of road discipline can take the majority of the blame, that does not change the fact that the Indian market isn’t pushing for safer cars as much as other countries. So let us take a step back and see the big picture on of market, and the numbers that back it up.
Safety Ratings And Their Significance (Or Lack Thereof)
Crash-tests of Indian car models are mainly done by Global NCAP and Bharat NCAP. The ratings that will be displayed in this article are from Global NCAP. A crash test of a particular model involves testing the impact protection from mainly the front and the side. After the test, the cars are rated out of 17 for adults and 49 for children after analyzing the readings registered by the sensors. From all of this, a crash test rating is given out of 5 stars. That rating is as concise as an inference one can get.
In other countries, all mass-market cars are mandated to undergo rigorous crash-test procedures before they are sold. This is, unfortunately, not the case in India. Many of the cars sold today don’t have an official crash test rating, and they don’t need one to continue selling. This lack of focus on safety puts many in danger. A car with a zero-star rating is essentially a moving box, shaped like a car.
But the interesting thing is that these zero-rated cars may be safer than what they are touted to be. Global NCAP has a policy where it says that to get a minimum of 1 star, the car needs to be fitted with an airbag. You will find that the main mass-market cars tested by NCAP actually have no airbags, as they are the base models.
The Tata Zest got 0 stars for the no airbags version and then 4 stars for the dual airbag version. It It is nice to see manufacturers like Tata and Mahindra put effort into safety. The crash-tested versions of the Marazzo and Nexon were top-end models. But still, more attention should be given to these tests.
But anyway, there are enough cars in the market that are tested, so we can get a lucid idea of the situation in hand.
The Numbers
The ratings provided here are for adult occupants. All the cars listed here cost under Rs. 10 lakhs.
The results speak for themselves, here, the cars preferred by customers are not safe enough. The most popular safety rating in terms of sales seems to be two. It is then followed by three, then four. The surprise was that zero-rated cars came next. This is mostly because of the fact that the Maruti Eeco, which really is not a consumer car, sold some 10,000 odd units.
Then we have cars which are rated four stars, as the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza. Then comes the 1-star rated cars. Sadly, cars rated 5-stars are very limited in this price range. In fact, only the Tata Nexon and Toyota Vios (Yaris’ Thailand version as tested by ASEAN NCAP) were rated 5 on 5. The basic takeaway is that never buy cars without airbags. Cars without airbags are very unsafe for occupants.
A Moment Of Thought
As previously mentioned, safety is a feature that no one really looks for in our market, but everyone needs it. That is where the root of this issue lies. Products are merely a mirror of consumers’ demands. Good selling products, even more so! If the consumer changes his/her demand, so will the products.
Safety is clearly not a priority for the average consumer. There are only two cars under 15 lakhs in the market that offer 7 airbags- the Mahindra XUV300, and the Toyota Yaris. Both of these cars are not topping their respective segments, in fact, the Yaris recorded three-digit sales numbers last month. Take the example of Toyota, again. The Toyota Etios Liva is quite a safe car with 4-stars, does not sell as well as the badge-engineered Toyota Glanza. Understandably, safety tech is quite expensive now, but with wider adaptation, the dream of an entry-level car having 6-airbags could soon become true.
But this situation is slowly changing for the better. With ABS and EBD now standard on almost every car, and a driver airbag slowly making its way into budget cars, the future does not look bleak. But it would certainly be nicer if the big guns like Hyundai and Maruti focused more on safety in budget cars. Maruti nearly has a 50% market share in passenger car sales and can bring a big change in the market if they want to. You can compare this to the situation in the tech world. When Apple removed the headphone jack in their iPhones in 2017, a myriad of companies followed suit at a blistering pace. While the magnitude is ridiculously larger here and removing a feature is not the same as adding, a tide can definitely be created.
I am no economist, but I do believe that the mass adoption of a certain feature can make the technology cheaper. Maruti making their entire lineup BS6 ready and adding hybrid technology with lithium-ion batteries to many of their cars is no easy feat. Hyundai bringing smart car capabilities at a low price (BlueLink), launching the Kona EV, and rejuvenating the EV segment. These examples showcase the change these companies can bring for the better.
Features that are trending sell. When I read a press release of a car launch, I do not read the safety features first, to be honest. Instead, the first thing I see is the latest features that have been added. Yes, safety features are not exciting. But it surely is not exciting when the unfortunate happens, and the car is not well equipped to handle it. That is when the utility perspective should take precedence over excitement. It is quite difficult to change this mentality, but I am sure we can establish that thought process with time for every buyer.
Conclusion
Just think back to the Kwid, and how Renault put a 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system in an entry-level car and took the segment by surprise. Fast forward to today, and almost every new car under Rs. 10 lakhs has an infotainment system. The same can be done with safety, and it would benefit us in ways that are exponentially more significant than convenience. But as said before, change is happening. Companies are not being given enough credit for their efforts in bringing safety features down in price. Take Ford, for example, their smallest offering – Figo can be bought with 6-airbags, while that is not the cheapest car in the market, it still deserves some credit.
But with stringent budget constraints and long lists of wants, we customers are not making it easy for these companies. If we are able to look at the bigger picture, and demand for more safety instead of more gizmos. We give the brands a long-lasting motivation to make safety features something universal, like the steering wheel. I urge everyone to make themselves more aware of the crash testing norms and their importance and also, make the people around you more aware of vehicle safety.
Safety In Budget Cars
– Mass-market cars should offer better standard safety
– Very few cars in India with a 5-star safety rating
– 6-7 airbags are only seen in top-end variants
