6-airbag rule may be deferred as small-car segment pushes back

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had announced the minimum six-airbag rule for vehicles that can carry up to eight passengers for enhanced safety of occupants: four for the driver and passenger in front (one side and one in front for each); and two “curtain airbags” that cover the passengers in the rear.

Dual airbags (driver and passenger) became mandatory on all vehicles this January. A driver airbag has been compulsory for all passenger vehicles since July 1, 2019.

Airbags soften the impact of collisions by keeping occupants from coming into contact with the steering wheel, dashboard, front glass, and other parts of the automobile.

Maruti Suzuki India, which makes nearly one in every two cars sold in the India, and is the biggest player in the small-car segment, is learnt to have petitioned the government to reconsider the proposal. It has cited its impact on the price-sensitive entry-level car segment already facing a sales slump over the last four years.

This comes after the country’s second largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor, decided to pull the plug on its new Santro in the wake of declining sales and the new safety norms. It saw the changes required to reconfigure the hatchback for six airbags as an unviable proposition.

“It will be a setback to the sales of small cars. Putting four extra airbags will entail substantial costs and could further impact the small-car market and could have a fallout on the employment potential of this sector,” Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava told The Indian Express.

The Ministry, however, maintains that the industry has to ensure that cars get safer in tune with global safety benchmarks.

Additional airbags have been proposed in the ‘M1’ category of vehicles, with the aim of minimising the impact of “frontal and lateral collisions” to the occupants of both front and rear compartments.

‘Category M’ covers motor vehicles with at least four wheels, used for carrying passengers. Sub-category ‘M1’ defines “a motor vehicle used for the carriage of passengers, comprising not more than eight seats in addition to the driver’s seat”. This category effectively subsumes the bulk of the passenger vehicles on India’s roads — from entry-level hatchbacks such as the Suzuki Alto or Hyundai Santro to multi-utility vehicles such as the Toyota Innova or Kia Carnival.

These vehicles are employed mostly for private use, alongside some commercial use by fleet operators.

India’s record on road security is among the poorest in the world, and Indian cars are famously behind the curve when it comes to offering safety features. This is especially glaring when comparisons are made with models offered by manufacturers in other global markets, including those made by carmakers operating in India. Companies that sell the same car model in global markets choose to cut down on some key safety features when they launch in India’s price-sensitive market.

The problem for small carmakers is pricing: more airbags as standard equipment will inevitably drive up the cost. A frontal airbag in an entry-level car typically costs between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000, and side and curtain airbags could cost more than double that — a big percentage of incremental costs for cars costing between Rs 3-7 lakh.

Most carmakers in India that offer six airbags only do so in top-end models, and in variants that cost upward of Rs 10 lakh.

Manufacturers have also flagged that a number of entry-level models are specifically designed for markets such as India, and that installing additional airbags will involve considerable re-engineering, including making modifications to the body shell and the inside compartment.

Then there is the timing. India’s auto industry is currently transitioning to stricter BS-6 emission norms, and implementing the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy or CAFE norms, both of which have cost implications. Manufacturers basically want to be able to offer cars at the lower end of the segment with two airbags, and let customers choose if they want to pay a premium for a model with six airbags.

Experts say safety features such as twin airbags, anti-lock braking systems and rear wipers would only add Rs 25,000 to the cost of the car. It is only because they are not mandatory that manufacturers provide these features exclusively in top-end versions of cars, and bundle them with other features, thereby making the vehicle costlier by about Rs 1.20 lakh or more.

In effect, this deprives Indian car buyers of variants that have these essential safety features. Making airbags mandatory, these experts argue, would lead to local production, bring down cost on account of higher volumes.

In the United States, front airbags are required by law in all cars. But most carmakers offer between six and 10 airbags, depending on the model. Almost every new car sold in Europe is equipped with front and side airbags. In the EU and in the United Kingdom, there is no direct legal requirement for new cars to feature airbags. But again, most variants are equipped with at least four to six airbags.

According to the latest government data, a total of 1.16 lakh road accidents occurred on national highways, including expressways, in 2020, causing 47,984 deaths.

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, in a recent interview to the Indian Express, flagged safety concerns: “We lose about 150,000 people due to road accidents and about 60% of those deaths are in the 18-24 age group, which is a big loss. If we leave aside other things, just the loss to India’s GDP due to these deaths would be in the range of 3 percentage points.”