Bharat NCAP set to officially launch: Understanding its car rating system in India
Delhi : On August 22, 2023, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, will introduce the eagerly anticipated Bharat New Car Assessment Program (Bharat NCAP). The Indian government hopes to reduce the number of people killed and injured in traffic accidents by making cars safer across the nation through this program. This will be India's first-ever comprehensive initiative to prevent auto accidents.
With the Bharat NCAP, India will join the US, China, Japan, and South Korea as the fifth nation in the world to have a focused program to prevent auto accidents. According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), the introduction of the Bharat NCAP will further efforts to increase road safety by raising the country's requirements for motor vehicles weighing up to 3.5 tonnes.
Here are some important details regarding Bharat NCAP, including how it will test and score automobiles and which models fall within the purview of its crash safety program.
Which vehicles will be covered by Bharat NCAP?
The new automobile accident safety program will be applicable to models that can carry up to eight people, including the driver, according to type clearance. Vehicles that are produced or imported in India and have a gross weight less than 3.5 tonnes or 3,500 kg must pass the Bharat NCAP crash testing. All of the regularly used and accessible automobiles on the Indian market will be subject to the safety assessment. In that situation, the new crash test program would apply to all passenger vehicles across all segment types, including hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs, and MPVs.
How vehicles will be chosen for testing under Bharat NCAP
Bharat NCAP enables automakers to freely submit their vehicle models for crash testing and safety evaluation. Once the crash test is complete, the authorities will inform the relevant OEMs of the results and they can then be made public. If they deem it essential, the makers will have the opportunity to ask for a reevaluation.
Additionally, the Bharat NCAP is authorized to independently purchase automobile models at random from dealerships for crash tests and safety level assessments. The program's credibility and transparency would be further increased as a result.
The collision safety program will contain testing facilities for CNG and electric vehicles in addition to the traditional internal combustion engine-powered cars and trucks that run on gasoline and diesel. Electric vehicle testing and evaluation are anticipated to resemble the Green NCAP for EVs in Europe.
Bharat NCAP: Crash test procedures for automobiles
Three main types of tests will be included in the Bharat NCAP's crash testing of the cars. These include the pole side impact test, the offset deformable barrier frontal impact test, and the side impact test. Through these testing, the specific vehicle's capacity to safeguard its occupants in a variety of collision scenarios will be carefully evaluated. Expect Bharat NCAP to test the cars in India with dummies fitted with sensors to verify the impact level in collision circumstances at specific speeds, simulating actual crash scenarios, just like the Global NCAP and other crash testing programs across the world.
Following the testing, the outcome of the impact on the dummy occupants will be evaluated using the information gathered from the sensors. Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) and Child Occupant Protection (COP) are the two categories into which the safety ratings of the vehicles assessed under the Bharat NCAP will be split. The cars will receive a rating between 0 and 5. A vehicle must receive a minimum of 27 points in the crash test in order to receive a five-star rating for adult occupant protection. Similar to the previous example, an automobile can receive a five-star rating in the child occupant protection area if it receives at least 41 points.
