Safety has become a major concern for car buyers now. Along with features and mileage, the informed customers are also looking at the safety ratings of cars while purchasing. We all know that Tata Motors, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Skoda are among the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) making the safest cars on sale in India, as seen from the safety ratings garnered by their vehicles.
While India now has its own car testing programme, Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat NCAP), numerous cars on sale here have been tested by Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP) under its Safer Cars for India campaign.
In July 2022, Global NCAP introduced new protocols to test the safety standards of cars on sale in India. Under the new protocols, the following seven models have scored five stars in both adult occupant protection and child occupant protection categories.
- 2023 Tata Safari facelift
- 2023 Tata Harrier facelift
- Skoda Slavia
- Skoda Kushaq
- Volkswagen Virtus
- Volkswagen Taigun
- Hyundai Verna
Unsurprisingly, the 2023 Tata Safari facelift and the 2023 Tata Harrier facelift also got a perfect five-star safety rating at Bharat NCAP.
While the Mahindra Scorpio-N scored five stars in the adult occupant protection category, it could garner only three stars in the child occupant protection category at Global NCAP crash tests.
Under the old testing regime at Global NCAP, no car had scored five stars in both adult occupant protection and child occupant protection categories.
However, models like the Mahindra XUV700, Tata Punch and Mahindra XUV300 scored five stars in the adult occupant protection category and four in the child occupant protection category.
