BNCAP decoded: Why new car safety ratings are important for India

Last week, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari approved the draft notification for Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (BNCAP), a safety rating system for passenger cars. Once implemented, this will pave the way for “star ratings” of new car models sold in India – much the same way air-conditioners and a few other consumer appliances get rated based on their energy efficiency standards.

BNCAP is designed to offer an assessment of crash safety performance of cars based on laboratory tests according to the Automotive Industry Standards (AIS).

What is BNCAP and how is car safety currently assessed?

BNCAP is the India equivalent of the Global New Car Assessment Programme (GNCAP). The UK-based agency promotes motor vehicle safety and independent consumer rating. With funding from the Bloomberg Philanthropies and the FIA Foundation, it serves as an international partnership for cooperation among NCAPs, and supports vehicle rating projects in Africa, India, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

In India, it has been rating cars – both on its own and also when they are voluntarily sent by a manufacturer – under the “Safe Cars for India Programme” since 2014.

“Most important for any NCAP is operational independence. This is essential to retain public confidence in the test results,” GNCAP Founder David Ward told Business Standard. Also important is a roadmap process, which enables the NCAP to update its test requirements on a rolling basis, typically every five years, to anticipate and lead technology changes and market trends. “I am hopeful Bharat NCAP will follow this approach,” Ward said.

Once in force, BNCAP would be applicable to passenger vehicles with up to eight seats, including the driver’s seat, with gross vehicle weight less than 3.5 tonnes, manufactured or imported in the country, in accordance with AIS.

Why BNCAP?

India has the largest number of road fatalities in the world. With BNCAP, the world’s fifth-biggest auto market that currently relies on GNCAP to get its cars rated, will have its own framework. Significantly, it would leave little room for carmakers that do not accord importance to the GNCAP rating since it is not aligned to Indian driving conditions. For instance, car market leader Maruti Suzuki has for long maintained that the company will abide only by the government regulations and not by parameters set by a private firm that has “vested interests”.

How will BNCAP work?

The testing will be done by a BNCAP-authorised testing agency. Here’s what the process flowchart will look like: the carmaker will submit a popular model (defined as the vehicle model, along with its variants, which has clocked sale of minimum 30,000 units from the date of its introduction in the previous calendar year); it would also submit the model’s additional variant voluntarily. Then, the manufacturer will submit an application for BNCAP Star rating to the authority.

Alternatively, the road transport and highways ministry can also nominate a model based on market intelligence. The authority would then notify the manufacturer for selection of test vehicles and the testing agency, respectively. Once the assessment is done, the agency will submit the report to the authority, which would inform the carmaker about the results and also publish them on its website. The manufacturer will bear the cost of testing. Manufacturers will not be able to propose further modifications, leading to a retest, and may not use the star rating or refer to it until the BNCAP authority has published the result.

The rating procedure?

The star rating methodology will include performance in full crash tests, and separate scores will be awarded on how the vehicle behaves with regards to adult occupant protection and child occupant protection when it is crashed.

The cars will be crashed to see the effect when the impact is frontal, sideways and with a pole. The speed at which it will be crashed will vary from 29 km/hour to 64 km/hour, depending on the kind of impact it’s being tested for.

Fitment of safety technologies such as airbags, ISOFIX (international standard for attachment points) for child safety mounts, crumple zones etc., and the role they play in protecting the occupants during the crash, will also be assessed.

The higher the rating (five stars), the safer the car.

How do safety ratings impact car sales?

While models with good GNCAP ratings –  Mahindra XUV700 being the latest – have become a talking point for auto companies, even bad ratings – a zero rating for bestselling models such as the Alto and Baleno – haven’t had an impact on their volumes and they continue to top the sales chart in their respective segments.

This indicates that while there is a growing awareness among buyers about vehicle safety, it does not feature in the top five car-buying decisions, said an official at a mass carmaker. He, however, concedes it’s time India had its own safety assessment standard.