What are India’s current crash safety regulations like?

Come April next year, the Central Government is expected to introduce a new star rating system through which carmakers in the country can have their vehicles’ crash safety levels assessed and rated. Ever since Global NCAP, a UK-based not-for-profit organisation kicked off its “SaferCarsForIndia” initiative in 2013, the resulting safety ratings have served to highlight the differences between Indian and international crash testing standards and therefore the crash safety levels of cars sold in India.

At present India follows very basic crash safety regulations set up by the United Nations. These were put into effect in 2017, with the government requiring no crash safety regulations prior to that.

The crash test regulations introduced were similar to those set by Global NCAP with one key difference: the speed at which the crash was conducted. While Global NCAP maintained a speed of 64kph, Indian crash tests which include a similar front and lateral collision test, are conducted at 56kph in accordance with Regulation 94 from the United Nations regulations for impact protection.

Lateral collision tests are conducted at an even lower speed of 50kph. While pedestrian, rear-end, and run-off road tests are also a part of crash safety test procedures, they aren't, at present, mandated by the government.

Most importantly, there is no star rating system, which means that manufacturers who clear the crash tests needn’t be graded on just how well they passed those tests and in which areas they fared poorly. This is one of the many things that the proposed Bharat NCAP system is hoping to address.

Under a contemporary New Vehicle Assessment Programme, a vehicle is allotted points based on front-offset and side-impact crash tests, pedestrian safety score along with child and adult occupant protection scores during the above-mentioned front-offset and side-impact crash tests.

An additional point is then given for any driver assistance or active safety technology, which is why cars with ESC as standard equipment tend to score higher over those that do not (assuming dual airbags and ABS are also standard, as per the law). These tests are presently conducted at centres built by ARAI (an autonomous body associated with the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries), iCAT (Manesar), NATRAX (Indore) and Chennai (GARC).

In addition to these, the Central Motor Vehicle Rules has appointed the Indian Institute of Petroleum (Dehradun) Central Institute of Road Transport (Pune), Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (Ahmednagar) as government-approved testing agencies across the country.

What needs to change

The Central Motor Vehicles Act, created in 1988 and amended multiple times since, continues to have only one chapter (Chapter VII) dedicated to the Construction, Equipment and Maintenance of Motor Vehicles. And it continues to remain woefully deficient in specifying just what measures carmakers need to take to ensure structural integrity. The only thing pertaining to vehicular construction is under Section 110 which states:

“The Central Government may make rules regulating the construction, equipment and maintenance of motor vehicles and trailers with respect to the width, height, tyre conditions, length and overhang of vehicles (…), speed governors, seat belt and other essential equipment”

It goes on to also include software for inbuilt safety devices, noise reduction, installation of catalytic converters, warranty norms etc. as things that it will regulate. Just what the criteria for passing crash tests, however, remains unspecified. Standards for seat belts, anchorages, child seats have been in place since 2010 with dual airbags and ABS having been mandatory since 2021 and 2019 respectively. Since 2017, seat belt reminders, speed alert system, reverse gear sensors and seat belt pretensioners have also become mandatory.

While dual airbags and ABS having become mandatory has gone a long way in upping the safety quotient of modern cars, even the UN-based crash safety regulation currently used by us do not have any special provisions for electric vehicles or factory-built CNG cars – two aspects that the proposed Bharat NCAP aims to change.

While brands like Maruti Suzuki have pushed for the crash speed to be limited to 56kph, citing average Indian driving speeds, said the speed limit is far more accommodative of structural inconsistencies. A crash conducted at 64kph will reveal more about the gaps in the car's overall structural soundness, and therefore is the designated speed that Bharat NCAP aims to implement. For CNG cars, post-crash leakage tests are to be on par with those of hydrogen-powered vehicles. According to Abhay Mannikar, advisor at the ARAI, Bharat NCAP aims to surpass Global NCAP when it comes to ratings for CNG and EVs in India (as told to Autocar Professional).

Bharat NCAP not likely to be a regulatory body

With brands like Maruti Suzuki, which have always held sway over policy-making, lobbying against Bharat NCAP being a regulatory body, odds are that having a star rating system will only be used to inform customers of the safety rating of the vehicle being purchased. That means that for a vehicle to be road-legal, compliance with Central Motor Vehicle Rules will suffice.

The idea, according to the road ministry, is to help consumers make an informed decision. In essence, Bharat NCAP, assuming it’s implemented by April 2023, will serve to replace Global NCAP, and therefore the need for manufacturers to send their vehicles overseas for testing.

With state-of-the-art testing centres already in the works, (ARAI claims to be ready with a new facility in Chakan, Pune) brands which do not participate in a Bharat NCAP assessment will be conspicuous in not carrying a star rating. Several brands like Mahindra and Tata Motors which have surged ahead in sales, in part, due to stellar Global NCAP-certified ratings, have welcomed the move and will in all likelihood use it to their benefit.

In the last decade, Global NCAP ratings have played a major role in forcing carmakers to improve safety credentials, whether they like to admit it or not. That, along with a few more mandatory features like ESC, multiple airbags and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems should make for much safer cars than the ones seen in the last decade. Even though the automotive ecosystem would hugely benefit from updated government-mandated crash testing standards, it’s hard to see how any brand could abstain from getting a Bharat NCAP rating, mandatory or not.