Global NCAP to make safety tests more stringent

Global NCAP is working to introduce more stringent vehicle safety testing methods for India. The organisation will introduce side impact tests and new protocols which will also consider active safety measures. This step is being taken in an attempt to close the gap between the standards of Euro NCAP and Global NCAP.

Global NCAP was expecting a new protocol by January of 2020. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced this protocol to be postponed to January 2022.

At present Global NCAP rates cars only after conducting a single crash test and awards stars for adult and child safety. This test is called the Offset-Deformable Barrier test and involves the car driven at 64 km/h and with a 40 percent overlap into a deformable barrier. The organisation has claimed that it is the equivalent of a crash between two cars of the same weight, travelling at a speed of 50 km/h. 5-star rated cars are put through more tests like the side impact test. Such tests can also be done at the behest of the manufacturer.

In comparison, Euro NCAP conducts tests on many more parameters such crash avoidance (active) and crash safety (passive). It even conducts post-crash safety tests like ease of passenger extraction.

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