Country’s largest selling car, Maruti Suzuki WagonR, has scored one-star rating at the Global NCAP crash test. The carmaker’s Alto scored only two stars, while Volkswagen Virtus and Skoda Slavia received a full five-star rating from the vehicle safety group.

The five-star rating means both the models have scored the maximum in both adult and child occupant protection, making them the safest made-in-India sedans.

While Alto K10 showed a stable structure and marginal-to-good protection for adult chest-to-head in the frontal impact, it showed weak protection to the chest-in-the-side impact. The WagonR also offered weak chest protection for the driver despite improvements in the restraint systems by Maruti Suzuki since the previous version of the model was tested by Global NCAP, the agency said.

“Maruti Suzuki declined to nominate a child restraint system (CRS) for child passengers. The lack of three-point belts in all seating positions and the lack of standard airbag disabling for a rear-facing CRS in the front-seating position explains the zero score for child protection in both Maruti Suzuki’s models,” Alejandro Furas, Secretary General of Global NCAP, said.

‘Critical issue’

However, an MSIL spokesperson said safety is a critical issue and is therefore closely regulated by governments around the world. “For Maruti Suzuki also, safety has always been a top priority. India’s crash safety regulations are almost similar to the standards in Europe and all our models meet these regulations and are duly tested and certified by the Government of India,” the spokesperson said.

In FY23, WagonR registered its highest-ever annual sales of over 2.12 lakh units. Recently, Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Maruti Suzuki India, had said: “The top four models (in passenger vehicle segment) in the industry in 2022-23 are all hatches and Alto is at top three and WagonR is number one.”

MSIL said in many models and variants, the company has gone well beyond government’s mandatory requirements and provided additional safety features like six airbags, electronic stability control, electronic brakeforce distribution, HUD, hill-hold assist, 360 view camera, Suzuki TECT platform for enhanced safety, ISOFIX child seat anchorages and a host of others.

“We will continue to keep our focus on this very important aspect in all our products at all times. We believe that the government is coming out with Bharat NCAP, an India-specific safety rating process, which will be more meaningful for the Indian consumers,” the spokesperson added.

‘Safest portfolio’

Global NCAP’s updated crash test protocols include assessments of frontal and side impact protection for all tested models as well as electronic stability control (ESC) and pedestrian protection. Side impact pole protection assessments are also required for vehicles scoring the highest star ratings. It rates vehicles from zero to five, based on their safety features, and automobiles with a higher rating are considered safer for occupants.

“The highest safety rating from Global NCAP for the Skoda Slavia and Volkswagen Virtus further cements the group’s position as the leading European car manufacturer with the safest portfolio of cars in India... The fine balance of comfort, driving dynamics and safety offered by our made-in-India models are gaining popularity not just here but also opening up export opportunities for the group,” Piyush Arora, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Skoda Auto Volkswagen India, said.

“Safety is of utmost importance for consumers today. I think global OEMs like Volkswagen and Skoda have always remained committed and have offered world class products to Indian consumers. Today, when the industry average price of a car is more than ₹11 lakh, I think there is ample room for OEMs to incorporate the basic safety standards in vehicles. The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has also been proactively pushing regulatory changes so that manufacturers are forced to incorporate safety standards in vehicles,” Puneet Gupta, Director at IHS Markit, said.

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