Safety is a huge concern when it comes to passenger vehicles in India. With over 4 lakh accidents occurring every year, car buyers have started to take notice of crash-test ratings of vehicles. While this isn’t a government mandate yet, most manufacturers are taking the extra step to ensure the safety of the occupants while giving them added value and the upper hand over the competition in terms of sales numbers as well.
Statistics say, 46 per cent of the vehicles sold in our country are crash-tested by the Global NCAP (globalncap.org, GNCAP). Here’s what the graph shows.
While 54 per cent of the vehicles sold are unrated, only two per cent of the vehicles sold are rated zero stars. One per cent of the cars are rated at one per cent while 16 per cent of vehicles sold are rated at two stars by the GNCAP. Nine per cent of this pie is taken by three-star rated cars and 10 per cent of them are four-star rated. Lastly, the remaining eight per cent are five-star rated cars.
In the manufacturer’s portfolio, about 61 per cent of Tata vehicles sold are five-star rated, while about 29 per cent of Mahindra vehicles sold are five-star rated. Coming to four-star rated cars – Volkswagen take the top spot with 53 per cent, followed by Renault (34 per cent), Tata (25 per cent), Toyota (21 per cent), Mahindra (17 per cent) and lastly Maruti (Eight per cent).
Speaking of three-star rated cars, Kia have 53 per cent of cars in this sector, followed by Ford (19 per cent) Maruti (11 per cent) and Renault (Three per cent). And now talking of two-star rated cars, Maruti have 26 per cent of their cars rated for the same followed by Hyundai (24 per cent). Datsun has over 92 per cent of its fleet with a one-star rating and followed by Renault with 33 per cent.
Apart from the Tata Safari and Harrier, all the brand’s other cars – the Punch, Altroz, Tiago, Tigor and Nexon (EVs included) – are rated five stars by the GNCAP. Interestingly, with the Punch, Tata have proven that a five-star rated vehicle can be priced at as low as Rs 5.5 lakh in India.
