Everything You Need to Know about NCAP Safety Rating

Our safety matters the most, especially when driving on the road towards a new adventure. Although car manufacturers are offering cars built with top-quality products, multiple airbags, seat belts and whatnot to ensure our safety, we still hear so many stories related to car accidents on the road.

NCAP stands for New Car Assessment Program, which tests the car’s crashworthiness. It was started in the year 1979 by the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and similar programs were established globally, such as Euro NCAP, Australia and New Zealand’s ANCAP, Latin NCAP and China’s C-NCAP.

One of the main principles of NCAP is to see a world free from road fatality. NCAP designs crash test, which later determines how safe the particular model is on the road. This test also helps car manufacturers to build better models.
The crash is ideally designed to see how the car keeps its passengers safe. NCAP designs separate car crash tests for the different car categories. This means that two car models from different categories cannot be compared based on their NCAP rating.

If you are wondering if Indian cars get an NCAP rating, then you are absolutely right. A total of 40 cars that are made in India have been examined by NCAP. So far, Tata Punch is leading the chart with its 5-star rating from Global NCAP.
Car models like Mahindra XUV300, Mahindra XUV700, Tata Altroz and Tata Nexon have also scored five stars. Mahindra Thar, Tata Tiago and Maruti Vitara Brezza scored a 4-star rating during their crash test.

India has its own crash test program known as Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Program (BNVSAP), which started in the year 2014 but got postponed until 2017. Setting up the labs and test sites led to this delay which is why many of you might not even be aware of it.

All the car models sold after 1st October 2019 need to clear the BNVSAP test. Although the ratings have not been made public, Mahindra Thar scored a 4-star rating from BNVSAP.

Both NCAP and BNVSAP have been formed so that the customers are aware of the safety a particular car model has to offer. The star rating can help customers in deciding which car to go for and also help manufacturers to build stronger cars.

Hope this article helped you make a wise choice while selecting a new car model for yourself. After all, nothing matters more than your safety.