Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors currently manufacture the safest made-in-India cars, as certified by Global NCAP
Safety used to be one of the most neglected aspects of a car until a few years back in India. However, car buyers have become increasingly aware about safety recently, thanks in part to Global NCAP’s #SaferCarsForIndia campaign. The non-profit organisation has crash-tested a lot of vehicles sold in India and publicly published the safety reports.
As per Global NCAP’s latest safety chart, Indian manufacturers Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata occupy the top spots. This shows how much our homegrown car brands care about safety. At the top spot, we currently have Mahindra XUV700, followed by Tata Punch at the second place and Mahindra XUV300 at the third. All three of these have scored a 5-star adult safety rating and a 4-star child safety rating.
Tata Altroz and Nexon sit at fourth and fifth place, respectively, both with a 5-star rating for adult safety and a 3-star rating for child safety. Next on the chart is Mahindra Thar, with Tata Tigor EV following at seventh place, both of which scored a 4-star adult safety rating and a 4-star child safety rating.
Tata Tigor and Tiago take the eighth and ninth spots, in no particular order. Only the Tigor was crash tested by Global NCAP, and the safety score was awarded to both the vehicles, as they are underpinned by the same platform and had identical safety equipment on offer. They have an adult safety rating of 4 stars and a child safety rating of 3 stars.
Although the Global NCAP safety chart (for Indian cars) is dominated by M&M and Tata, they aren’t the only ones selling safe cars in our market. Volkswagen Polo and Renault Triber also have a 4-star adult safety rating and a 3-star child safety rating, impressive for budget-friendly cars.
With awareness about vehicle safety on the rise, we expect other carmakers to also make progress in this area. Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, had previously proposed a slew of improvements to vehicle safety standards, like mandatory six airbags on all vehicles, which is a great proposal but an extremely expensive one, especially in times of market slowdown like this.
Note: Tata Nexon had initially scored a 4-star rating for adult safety, but was then updated, following which it scored its current safety ratings.