Renault Duster scores zero star in the Global NCAP Crash Test

When it comes to buying a car in India, the higher the trim you look at, the more luxurious your car cabin looks. Unfortunately, even an elemental safety feature like airbags comes only with pricier trims or as an optional add on. Airbags, in fact, feature last on the list of priorities for most car-buying Indians. We want the fancy features first and we want it priced competitively too. In a bid to aggressively price their car for the Indian market, manufacturers here often offer lower trims of a car with only primary safety features. But this low pricing too comes at a cost – a heavy and tragic cost for both the manufacturer and the user. 

The Global New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) has released the results of a recently conducted crash test on Renault Duster. The basic variant of the Renault Duster which is sold with no airbags scored a zero in the NCAP crash test.

The test concludes that the lack of airbags in the car would have resulted in grievous injuries and potentially be a high risk for the lives of the adult occupants sitting in the front. The base variant Duster also scored two stars for rear seat child occupant.

At the request of the manufacturer, NCAP also crash tested the variant with optional driver side airbag. The variant with optional airbag increased the score from zero to three but the score for the rear seat child occupant stayed the same at two stars, whereas the Renault Duster had scored four starts in Latin NCAP crash test in the year 2015.

After a thorough investigation, it was found that the airbags of the India-made Renault Duster were smaller than that of the Colombian Renault Duster. The smaller sized airbags in the Indian Duster resulted in the lower NCAP rating under the same testing criteria.

Secretary General of Global NCAP, David Ward said, "It is troubling that during the UN Road Safety Week, we yet again encountered a zero star car in our crash testing in India. Renault produces the Duster in a number of markets and yet it seems content to provide a version for India which falls so far short on safety. The version of the Duster with an airbag scores three stars, but this too fell short as it was fitted with a smaller airbag. A model with a correctly sized airbag should be provided as a standard."

Update:

Renault India said, “Safety is of paramount importance for Renault and all our products meet and exceed the requisite safety standards set by Indian Regulatory Authorities. India is gradually moving towards international safety norms by including more robust safety regulations and the assurance of the Bharat NCAP is a positive step in this direction. As a customer-focused company, Renault fully supports this initiative and we are already future-ready in terms of technology, design and engineering for enhanced safety for all our vehicles. Indian Government has announced that the crash test regulation for the existing cars will come into effect in 2019 and for the new cars in 2017. Renault fully supports this.”