[dhanushs]

I somehow have a gut feeling, in the next 10 years, 90% of the new cars will be Tata and Mahindra. And extremely pricey.

IMO, Lack of Indian road safety is nowhere related to safety equipment's in cars, but, UTTER LACK of implementation of rules and infrastructure.

1. How many driving licenses are given out to people who barely know driving.
2. How many of the India drivers know road rules.
3. How many of road rule violations are charged and whats the system in place to charge road violations?
4. Whats the road safety infrastructure on Indian roads?
5. and more..

Well, it's like, let accidents happen, and 6 airbags will make sure people live long enough to buy a second 'new' car.

[Carma2017]

On the surface of it, this seems like a serious show of intent from the government. But the stated aim of implementation within this year itself for all vehicles, current and upcoming, is not practical.
Half of the vehicles (or more) plying on Indian roads would shut down thereby hitting revenue for government. It is simply not possible to develop, test and equip all variants of all vehicles within such a short time. There is equipment and weight difference across variants for all vehicles. This affects crash performance. So, at a minimum, even for models which have 6 airbags in top variants, a certain amount of development and testing is required for lower variant implementation.
The capacity of Airbag suppliers to provide this quantum increase in requirement will be the biggest bottleneck. The airbag suppliers are the ones who gain the most in business and revenue terms.
Also, since no crash tests like Pole impact etc are linked with 6 airbag introduction, I expect to see many "naam ke vaaste" airbags on vehicles. Remember, the vehicles in Indian roads are already in compliance to existing side crash tests. So, they only have to give an equipment which may not necessarily enhance safety but will definitely increase weight and cost.

But in spite of the above, I do not think government will care, as the optics of the move for non automobile engineering folks is substantial. GNCAP is going to have a field day proving that 6 airbag vehicles in India will get zero stars.

[Guna]

Probably there will be 2 types of airbags being produced in future.

• Airbags which are designed to protect the occupants in case of a crash (like the ones which are already used)
• Cheap airbags which are produced just to meet the norms (I can imagine where these will be produced).

[RaghavEvoX]

This seems to be a move in the right direction.

But a GST normalization along with these rules would be beneficial for both the industry and the consumers.

This is a heads up for the industry and don't think this will be implemented anytime soon.
But I am sure MS & the likes of Bhargava will complain after 2-3 years that they didn't have enough time for the development to implement the same and lobby for an extension.

[condor]

So are we going to see a Qute with 6 airbags and hence marked "safe" ?

Gadkari saab, you could do better than this. Make the baseline as 4-star NCAP rating.

[Bhupesh_2628]

This is a great move by the Government.

One thing I'm not able to understand is what does it mean when they say "upto 8 passengers"?

Does that also count for vehicles that can seat - 4 people, 5 people?
If yes, then that means all vehicles of that category irrespective of segments will have 6 airbags from now on.
For eg: S-Presso, Alto, Celerio, i10, Tiago etc. to name a few.

Then, they should have simply said "all passenger vehicles" instead of "upto 8 passengers". Its confusing.
What do you guys think?

Also, what is meant by "M1 vehicle category" in the below tweet:
"...it has been decided that 4 additional airbags be mandated in the M1 vehicle category..."

[yogishkamath]

The people buying entry level cars are usually upgrading from two-wheelers.

Increasing the regulatory requirements to put these cars on the road will raise the prices of these cars and could well make them unaffordable on the margins. Basically, some fraction of the people buying these cars will be forced to keep using two wheelers and die at higher rates in road accidents as a result.

Also, I would like to see some data which shows what the marginal increase in safety is in A and B1/B2 segment cars from having 6 vs 2 airbags. My sense is that the increase will be minimal and may not even offset the extra deaths that result from forcing people to stick to two wheelers.

Of course, our beloved transportation minister and the career bureaucrats who advise him are not used to being guided by data or even thinking of second order effects of policy since it is the common public and not they who pay the price for it.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by Bhupesh_2628

This is a great move by the Government.

One thing I'm not able to understand is what does it mean when they say "upto 8 passengers"?

Does that also count for vehicles that can seat - 4 people, 5 people?
If yes, then that means all vehicles of that category irrespective of segments will have 6 airbags from now on.
For eg: S-Presso, Alto, Celerio, i10, Tiago etc. to name a few.

Then, they should have simply said "all passenger vehicles" instead of "upto 8 passengers". Its confusing.
What do you guys think?

Also, what is meant by "M1 vehicle category" in the below tweet:
"...it has been decided that 4 additional airbags be mandated in the M1 vehicle category..."

I think that means they will exclude vehicles like Winger/Traveler which are available in 8+ seater options. Also see link below for classification:

https://morth.nic.in/sites/default/f...rder-merge.pdf

[Bhupesh_2628]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

I think that means they will exclude vehicles like Winger/Traveler which are available in 8+ seater options.

Thanks for sharing the pdf @fhdowntheline. It refers to M1 as a Light Motor Vehicle only.

I just searched on Vahan Parivahan website & M1 category is stated as follows:

Category M1: Means a motor vehicle used for the carriage of passengers, comprising not more than eight seats in addition to the driver's seat.

By this, we can at least assume that Light Motor Vehicles of all seating categories (upto 8 seats) of all segments will have 6 airbags (2 previously mandated & 4 more airbags going to be mandated soon).
If my understanding is correct & this is what they wanna implement, then its a huge one step forward towards safety.

One will get 6 airbags starting from lower variants.

Edit 1:
Guys, please read below additional tweet from Nitin Gadkari:

"This will ultimately ensure the safety of passengers across all segments, irrespective of the cost/variant of the vehicle."

Edit 2:

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

I get the feeling that only Maruti will be seriously affected by this at the lowest tier of cars. I dont think that the Alto is sold with 6 airbags anywhere. Also not sure about S Presso and Wagon R. Hyundai Santro, Datsun Go, Go+ may surely be culled. Not sure about Kwid/Redigo based on @ron178's post about EuroNCAP test of Dacia Spring.

@fhdowntheline, I completely agree to your point. But manufacturers have to do something to make a 6-airbag variant for these vehicles as per the tweet by Nitin I posted under 'Edit 1'.
Now, there might be a possibility of getting this mandate slightly modified by him (subject to changes) upon the request of manufacturers in case they can't resort to this mandate for lower segment vehicles.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by Bhupesh_2628

Thanks for sharing the pdf @fhdowntheline. It refers to M1 as a Light Motor Vehicle only.

I just searched on Vahan Parivahan website & M1 category is stated as follows:

Category M1: Means a motor vehicle used for the carriage of passengers, comprising not more than eight seats in addition to the driver's seat.

By this, we can at least assume that Light Motor Vehicles of all seating categories (upto 8 seats) of all segments will have 6 airbags (2 previously mandated & 4 more airbags going to be mandated soon).
If my understanding is correct & this is what they wanna implement, then its a huge one step forward towards safety.

One will get 6 airbags starting from lower variants.

I get the feeling that only Maruti will be seriously affected by this at the lowest tier of cars. I dont think that the Alto is sold with 6 airbags anywhere. Also not sure about S Presso and Wagon R. But cars like Ignis may get a fresh lease of life. Hyundai Santro, Datsun Go, Go+ may surely be culled. Not sure about Kwid/Redigo based on @ron178's post about EuroNCAP test of Dacia Spring.

[achilles101]

If the notification becomes the law, it'll be generally good from a safety perspective.

I am looking for a second car and I want one with 6 airbags. Renault (max 4 airbags), Maruti, Nissan don't have any car with 6 airbags available in a single variant which restricts options for consumers. If they can offer 6 airbags internationally they can do so here too.

[RoadTiger]

Really good move by the Transport Min. Its time India had more formal regulation around safety in cars. A minimum NCAP/ Indian NCAP score could also be a good move.

Safety is a much bigger deal now than perhaps 7-10 years back - given
1. the significantly improved road infrastructure that allows folks to drive at 90-100+
2. greater preference for inter-city road travel post pandemic (was a trend pre-pandemic too) esp for family - have seen a massive surge in travel for family vacations by cars in the last year or so
3. general lax attitude towards safety by large manufacturers in lower segments (read it as Maruti in particular)

Most experts reckon costs going up by upto 20-25K given the new regulation, (hardly a few hundred rupees of extra EMI) which isnt prohibitive enough IMHO for people to avoid buying cars.

As for the expected 'pain' for manufacturers - my view is - if certain companies have been blind or havent prioritized this megatrend shift towards safety in India in their plans, too bad !

Am very surprised by those here criticizing this move (seems prejudiced by political opinions) - Poking holes is fine but outright criticism of a progressive move - is difficult to fathom

[Simhi]

Originally Posted by kushagra452

The Hon'ble Minister for Road Transport & Highways has tweeted today about approving a draft notification regarding making 6 air bags compulsory for vehicles carrying upto 8 passengers.

Appreciate the government for thinking in the right direction. Will this be applicable to all categories of vehicle including Auto (3 wheelers), LCV etc.?

I only hope the government comes out ironclad policy and the draft notification does not get diluted by the time the final notification is issued in consultation with the manufacturers.

I would be keen to see how Maruti reacts to this. Can we expect at least one Maruti vehicle with 6 airbags in 2022/2023?

[vinu_h]

The estimated birth rate in 2021 was 2 per woman, much lower than the 3.5 per woman in 2000. Considering the vehicle refresh cycle, it would take about 5-10 yrs for this policy to take effect. Birth rate would have dropped to maybe 1.5 per woman then, meaning India's population will be at a decline. We are learning from other's mistakes - China, Japan, EU etc.

Good move and timing by GoI.

Note: Figures pulled from web search

[schwartz]

The government appears to be trying to make car ownership onerous. Countries such as Singapore try to do that by overt restrictions and taxation. Well, they don't have much choice as they don't make cars locally. What India on the other hand is trying to do is premiumize cars mandatorily. This would at least help the industry retain, and perhaps even grow the profit pool.

Now, it would be ridiculous for the government to pronounce things like leather seats and soft touch surfaces as mandatory. By including agendas like safety and environment the government is probably trying to get a wider social buy-in.

Our cities can sparsely accommodate more cars on the road. For a country like India, creating a world class public transport should be higher in the agenda than creating world class roads. Many city states seem to be getting their priorities right.

Therefore, IMHO, this and the previous pronouncement, are all steps in the right direction.