World NCAP has pledged to eradicate cars that fail crash tests by 2020.
Speaking to Autocar, World NCAP secretary general David Ward has said that the current reasons given by the manufacturers are ridiculous and the consumers won’t back them for much longer.
Most of the budget hatchbacks sold in the Indian market do not meet the safety regulations.
Regulations state that the minimum acceptable speed for testing a car is 35 mph. But even at this speed, many of today’s cars fail to pass the test. Manufacturers claim that they are trying to build very cheap cars to attract motorcycle customers. But Ward claims that there is no evidence to prove this. Increasing the safety of the car would not actually increase the price. An airbag would cost just $50 (INR 3,300). Manufacturers claim that adding additional safety equipment to cars increases its price.
Budget cars from Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata, Datsun and Ford are the main cars that have been failing these tests. The main countries these cars are from are developing countries like Brazil and India. Ward feels that tightening the regulations in these countries should help in eradicating zero-star rated by 2020. He also warned that consumers are slowly increasing pressure on the manufacturers in increasing the safety of their products.
The Volvo XC90 is one of the safest vehicles on sale today
We have seen this trend in India ever since some of the cheap budget cars in India failed their safety test. Consumers have been demanding for an increase in safety since then and manufacturers have been forced to oblige. In the end, it is the manufacturers duty to ensure the safety of the consumers. We support all the initiatives which look to improve the safety of cars on Indian roads.
Source – Autocar UK
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