Safety ratings under Bharat NCAP to play significant role in buying cars

The car safety ratings under the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (BNCAP), which will rate car models after testing, will play a significant role in buying cars in the coming years.

The move will prompt high selling and even sub-Rs 10 lakh car models to get safety ratings, making the cars more expensive.

According to the latest survey by LocalCircles, 72 per cent of car buyers will refer to ratings while buying cars over the next three years.

In the survey, around 48 per cent of the existing car owners stated that if BNCAP safety star rating of their car comes out to be low, they are likely to "ensure speed and safety belt compliance" when on high-speed roads and highways, according to a report in The Economic Times (ET).

The survey included 24,000 respondents across 271 districts in India.

From October 1, carmakers can get safety or crash impact tests of the models done within the country under the Bharat NCAP.

Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer of sales and marketing at Maruti Suzuki India, said, "We welcome the steps taken by the government for the BNCAP programme."

Safety is becoming a vital buying criterion and this programme will enable informed decision-making by customers. "Irrespective of the star rating of cars, wearing seat belts is essential for the safety of car users," he said.

He added that Maruti Suzuki will offer three models under the BNCAP programme, including two compact vehicles.

Currently, carmakers in India get safety ratings on their models from the Global NCAP project of the UK-based charity Towards Zero Foundation, spending around Rs 2.5 crore on each model, according to the ET report.

Under the BNCAP, the safety ratings cost will come down to Rs 60 lakh.

What is Bharat NCAP?

Under the Bharat NCAP, cars voluntarily nominated by manufacturers will be crash-tested as per protocols.

This programme applies to the base model of passenger vehicles with not more than eight seats, in addition to the driver's seat, with gross vehicle weight not exceeding 3,500 kg.

Cars will be rated between one to five stars on three parameters — adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, and safety assist technologies.

The first two parameters will be calculated with three different tests, including a frontal offset test where a vehicle is driven at 64 kmph and with 40 per cent overlap into a barrier representing the oncoming vehicle, which replicates a crash between two cars of the same weight.

Other tests are the side impact test at 50 kmph and the pole-side impact test, where a car is crashed into a rigid pole at 29 kmph.