Good news for the safety of drivers and their co-drivers in India. The Indian ministry of transport has promised a change in the law that requires car manufacturers to fit an airbag on the passenger side as standard.
Anyone who keeps a close eye on the reporting on Techzle.nl has undoubtedly learned in recent years that the safety features of cars on the Indian market are not always optimal. The Global NCAP regularly crashes cars into the wall, which more than once do not end up in the shredder with a single star. These are not always cars from Indian manufacturers such as Tata or Mahindra. In fact, with the Nexon, Tata was the first Indian manufacturer to receive 5 stars. While a driver’s airbag, ABS, speed indicator, seat belt reminder and rear parking sensors should be standard equipment on cars sold in India, a popper bag was still not standard for the co-driver. That is about to change.
Suzuki S-Presso
The Indian Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has come up with a change in law that obliges manufacturers to fit an airbag on the side of the co-driver as standard in vehicles of the M and N category. The M category consists of passenger cars, the N category includes commercial vehicles with a maximum payload of 12 tonnes. Various manufacturers have been supplying standard airbags in the front since last year, although there are enough models that currently have to do with one pop bag, such as the Hyundai Santro, Suzuki Wagon R and Datsun Redigo. The Renault Kwid, which comes to Europe in an adapted and thus ‘safe’ form as an electric Dacia Spring, has only one driver’s airbag as standard in India. The Suzuki S-Presso did not even receive a single star recently.
Whether the automakers selling their wares in India will take the opportunity to make their cars more expensive remains to be seen. Global NCAP has been pushing for stricter safety requirements for newly sold passenger cars for years with the #Safercarsforindia campaign.