India will be the world’s fourth biggest automobiles market by 2020, and it is doesn’t have its own safety standards

India-made cars failing safety tests isn’t new. This time the list includes some of the most popular models like Renault Kwid, Maruti Suzuki Celerio and Hyundai Eon. Each of these cars has received zero stars for safety. The Maruti Suzuki Eeco and Mahindra Scorpio met the same fate.

The sad fact is that while the country may be the sixth largest automobile market, it doesn’t have its own NCAP. India is also expected to jump to the fourth spot by 2020, skipping ahead of the likes of South Korea and Germany.

In case you remember, the Global NCAP's first India crash test was 3 years back. It saw the Tata Nano, Maruti Suzuki Alto800, Ford Figo, Hyundai i10 and VW Polo, where almost all cars except the Polo fared badly. The next round in 2014 with the Datsun GO and Maruti Suzuki Swift also had disappointing results.

Other markets like the US, EU, Australia, China and even some major South East Asian nations have their own vehicle safety standards, but not India. These tests by Global NCAP are critical to drawing the Indian government’s attention to possible life-threatening injuries Indian car-buyers are prone to while driving.

These tests require some basic safety regulations to be met. This includes having dual airbags as standard, and having a certain amount of structural integrity. Needless to say most test vehicles failed on both counts.

The only ray of hope is that some car manufacturers like Mahindra and Renault are taking such tests seriously. Mahindra now offers airbags as at least an option on every variant of the Scorpio and KUV100. It’s also promised to update security standards, and claims almost 75% of Scorpio customers choose the air bags variants. Renault has also said it’ll rework the Kwid to make it safer.

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