At the sidelines of the announcement of the Fronx’s 1 lakh sales milestone, Shashank Srivastava, senior executive director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki, revealed that there are three models heading to Bharat NCAP for crash testing. The Maruti Baleno, Grand Vitara and Brezza will be the first models from the brand to be sent for BNCAP testing.

1. Maruti Fronx will be sent in the second batch
2. Made-in-India Baleno scored poorly on Latin NCAP tests
3. Previous-gen Brezza got 4-star rating from Global NCAP

Maruti Suzuki safety record

Srivastava also confirmed that the Fronx will be sent for crash testing later on. Unfortunately, Maruti’s cars in India have gotten a bad rap for being unsafe as the models tested by Global NCAP under its Safer Cars for India campaign, usually scored poorly. There were two Maruti models – Alto K10 and Wagon R – tested by Global NCAP in 2023 and neither scored more than 2 stars for adult occupancy; they both also scored zero stars for child occupancy protection. In response to the complaints, in 2022, Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava had said, “I can say with complete confidence that putting in NCAP standards in cars will have no significant impact on the number of accidents.”

While the Maruti Baleno has not been tested by Global NCAP, the made-in-India premium hatchback didn’t do well at the Latin NCAP crash tests, securing a zero-star rating. Naturally, the norms used by the Latin American safety organisation are different from the ones used by Global NCAP and Bharat NCAP, but a low rating can, nonetheless, affect the perception of a vehicle.

Global NCAP did test the previous-gen Brezza (called the Vitara Brezza) compact SUV in 2018, and this was the first and only time a Maruti model scored more than adequately in a crash test – the Kia Sonet rival managed a 4-star adult occupancy rating and 2 stars for child occupancy.

The Grand Vitara is a recent entrant and had not been tested by the global car safety organisation. However, Maruti hopes this midsize SUV – along with the premium hatch and compact SUV – will do well in the Bharat NCAP crash tests, thereby mitigating some of the ‘tin-can’ complaints.

Bharat NCAP crash tests

The first test results from Bharat NCAP – Tata Harrier and Safari scoring the highest rating of 5 stars – were released in December last year (a delay of two months). Meanwhile, Hyundai’s first BNCAP tested car is expected to be the Tucson, which is expected to be followed by the Exter. For an in-depth look at the BNCAP crash test norms, click here.