 "April 2019: Carmakers could get early airbag deadline shocker")
Carmakers may have to introduce mandatory airbags in all vehicles from April 2019, six months earlier than the previous deadline of October 2019.
In another jolt to the automobile industry, the government is gearing up to advance the deadline for compliance with crash norms in existing car models. These norms cannot be met without airbags. The proposal by the Union road transport ministry is learnt to be at a draft stage, and a notification could soon follow.
Manufacturers in India, the world’s fifth-largest carmaker, currently do not have any legal obligation to fit airbags in vehicles. The government had set October 2017 as the deadline for all new car models (launched after the deadline) to comply with mandatory driver-side airbag and crash norms. Existing car models, however, were granted a two-year grace period to comply with the norms, that is from October 2019. This deadline is now getting advanced by six months.
The industry, however, wants the government to stick to its earlier deadline. “The proposal is at a draft stage now. The industry will discuss and communicate the challenges to the government,” said an executive with a top Delhi-based carmaker.
The advancement of the deadline in the case of existing models will create additional challenges for carmakers which are under pressure on account of meeting BS-VI emission norms in April 2020 against an earlier deadline of April 2023.
The challenge before the industry is not just equipping vehicles with airbags. The industry also needs to meet frontal and side crash test norms from October 2019 for existing vehicles. However, these norms cannot be met without airbags and significant structural changes. So, in effect, the deadline for airbags also gets advanced.
A revision of the deadline for airbags also means that some of the existing models that are not in a position to meet the new mandatory norms may now have to go out of production six months earlier than planned.
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Structurally, vehicles like Nano and Eon are not yet equipped to meet crash norms.
Almost every new car that has been launched in the past couple of years comes with a standard airbag. This, however, is not true of older mass models like Alto, WagonR, and Eon. Where manufacturers tried to introduce an optional airbag in the older models, the response has been tepid in a price-sensitive market. This is despite the fact that an airbag, along with seat belt, can reduce chances of fatality by up to 80 per cent. An optional airbag makes the vehicle price expensive by up to Rs 20,000, depending on the model.
Companies like Toyota have made airbag standard across all models for more than a year.
The government has been stepping up pressure on the automobile industry to meet emission and safety norms. Safety norms are meant to bring down the fatalities from road accidents. Of late, the government has been pushing the industry to move towards electric vehicles.