A spokesperson for Mahindra said that approximately 75 percent of Scorpio customers choose the airbag variant of the vehicle, and that the non-airbag variant, which was used by Global NCAP for its crash test, was bound to perform poorly.
A Renault India spokesperson too said that the company’s products meet and “exceed” Indian regulations, but the company is welcoming increasing safety awareness and has technology to improve safety standards on all its products.
Maruti’s chairman, Mr. RC Bhargava, however questioned the standards set for Indian cars by an organization such as the Global NCAP. He said – “Why should we listen to them [Global NCAP]?”
The government of India is all set to announce the Bharat NCAP regulations which will come into play in 2017. Details of Bharat NCAP are expected to be finalized in a week, and made public within the next 10 days.