S-Presso joins long list of Maruti cars which have scored 0 star safety rating
Global NCAP has crash tested 3 new cars which are made in India and sold in India. These are Kia Seltos, Hyundai Grand i10 NIOS and Maruti S-Presso. While the former two has managed to get a few stars each, Maruti S-Presso has failed to get any star and scored a 0 star rating – just like its siblings Alto, EECO and Celerio. S-Presso is now the 4th car from Maruti which is currently on sale and has a 0 star safety rating.
When Maruti S-Presso was launched, MSIL decided to use the term mini-SUV car succinctly. How far from the truth this is, is self evident. The company now uses the term SUV inspired. Not only has the meaning of UV been messed with, any analogy of S-Presso being remotely SUV-ish is at best in jest.
But that’s the least of MSIL’s problems. In Global NCAP’s latest round of safety tests, S-Presso has acquired a disappointing zero star rating. The test car was only fitted with a driver airbag as standard, and achieved a dangerous zero stars for adult occupant protection, and two stars for child occupant protection.
Zero rated cars in the Indian market
Global NCAP says, ‘There is no place for zero rated cars in the Indian market. It remains a great disappointment that an important manufacturer like Maruti Suzuki does not recognise this.’ But as it stands, this zero-rated car does quite well in terms of sales, and accounts for about 10k units on any given month. That’s more than total domestic sales most other manufacturers may be able to report on a monthly basis.
Car sales in India has long been a difficult one to gain mastery of, and a number of times, purchase making decisions are not based on safety rating. For starters, most cars in India are yet to be tested, and for decades decisions have been made on affordability over safety, which is a new parameter to consider for many car buyers.
S-Presso sits snug in the below Rs 5 lakh car category, a section that’s crucial to MSIL’s dominance. In fact, following the relaxation of a nationwide lockdown has seen business activity return to normal, and with that, the dominance of MSIL has surged, and this time it looks even better. Though S-Presso sales were stable at over 10k units, total mini and compact segment sales grew stronger by 19.2 percent.
Maruti S-Presso safety score
A point of view expressed by MSIL as recently as the last decade outlined that offering airbags as standard in entry level cars would increased entry level price points, which in turn would steer potential buyers away from car purchases to bike purchases, which is more unsafe.
Maruti Suzzuki’s small and compact car product offering and market share far exceeds the rest of the market.The Global NCAP test is conducted at a standard speed of 64 km/hr. Maruti S-presso adult rating score was 0 on 17.00, and for child, it was 13.84 on 49.00. The frontal impact saw what was once the front end of the car, scatter.
At present, Global NCAP only tests frontal crash protection for occupants and not side impact and pedestrian protection. Such inclusions are expected to be crucial to future evolution of Global NCAP’s crash test protocols for India.
