In the Bharat NCAP crash test results, Tata Motors, the top producer of electric four-wheelers in India, received a 5-star rating for its battery-electric vehicles (EVs), Punch.ev and Nexon.ev. The domestic electric vehicle maker is now the first business to be certified by the Indian New Car Assessment Program, or BNCAP.
This application evaluates safety features and technology, performs crash testing, and assigns a simple star grade to represent relative safety performance.
“We are pleased to be the first manufacturer to spearhead the BNCAP methodology with exceptional outcomes, and we welcome tougher government safety regulations. The Punch.ev, India’s safest electric vehicle, is a thrill to make, and the Nexon.ev, with its 5-star certification, carries on the legacy of safety, stated Shailesh Chandra, managing director of Tata Passenger Electric Mobility and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles.
In December of last year, the sport utility vehicles Tata Harrier and Safari became the first cars in India to be awarded a 5-star safety certification by BNCAP.
According to the business, the Punch.ev scored 31.46 out of 32 for adult occupant protection (AOP) and 45 out of 49 for child occupant protection (COP), which is the highest score point ever recorded by any vehicle to date.
The Nexon.ev also scored impressively, with 29.86 out of 32 for AOP and 44.95 out of 49 for COP.
“Congratulations to @tataev @TataMotors for achieving a 5-star BNCAP rating for the Punch.ev and Nexon.ev, thus becoming the first ever 5-star-rated EVs in the Indian automotive market,” said Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in a post on X.
He emphasized that a high BNCAP rating is a vital tool for customers in selecting safer vehicles, underscoring the high degree of safety offered to vehicle occupants, as EVs determine the future of mobility in India.
The test
An in-house star-rating system for crash-testing automobiles has been implemented by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Vehicle safety in a collision will be indicated by the system through a star rating system ranging from one to five. This voluntary rating system, also known as BNCAP, went into effect on October 1, 2023.
Cars nominated voluntarily by automakers will be subjected to crash testing under BNCAP, following the guidelines provided in the soon-to-be-published Automotive Industry Standard 197.
The program is applicable to passenger cars with a gross vehicle weight of no more than 3,500 kg and up to eight seats, including the driver’s seat. We will test each variant’s basic model only.
Cars receive ratings between one and five stars after evaluation on three parameters: AOP, COP, and safety assist technologies present in the vehicle.
The first two parameters are established by means of three different tests: the frontal offset test, in which a car is driven into a deformable barrier at 64 kph with a 40 percent overlap, mimicking a head-on collision; other tests include the side impact test, which is conducted at 50 kph, and the pole side impact test, which is conducted at 29 kph, in which a car is driven sideways into a rigid pole.
The testing procedures that BNCAP has implemented are based on Global NCAP, a project of the UK-based non-governmental organization Towards Zero Foundation.
Gadkari emphasized during the program’s inception in August of last year that BNCAP will be essential to turning India into the world’s automotive powerhouse and to achieving self-sufficiency in the country’s automotive sector.
Despite government investments in infrastructure, road accidents in India continue to rise alarmingly.
According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ annual report on road accidents, which was released on Tuesday, there were almost 460,000 accidents in 2022 alone that resulted in the loss of 168,491 lives—an all-time high.
In 2022, 461,312 events were recorded by States and Union Territories, resulting in 443,366 injuries. Compared to 2021, there was an 11.9 percent rise in accidents, a 9.4% increase in fatalities, and a 15.3% increase in injuries.