These ‘Made-in-India’ SUVs achieve 5 stars under Global NCAP's crash tests

The Global New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) on Friday published the first set of results from a recent round of crash tests for India. A major highlight of the results was that Kushaq and Taigun, the first two Made-in-India SUVs which were launched here in June and September 2021 respectively, achieved a five star rating under Global NCAP's updated protocols.

While Kushaq is manufactured by Czech manufacturer Skoda Auto, Taigun is manufactured by Germany's Volkswagen. These are produced at a joint production facility near Pune.

In a press release, Global NCAP said the two cars achieved five star ratings for both adult and child occupant protection, becoming the first models ever to achieve full points for both adults and kids.

Under the programme's new protocols, models are assessed for their frontal and side impact protection, Electronic Stability Control (ESC), pedestrian protection, and side impact pole protection.

“At their most basic safety specification, with ESC fitted as standard, Kushaq and Taigun demonstrated a stable structure in the frontal impact, adequate to good protection for adult occupants, and marginal to good protection in the side impact scenarios. Child occupants received full protection during the front and side impact,” the statement said.

Welcoming the cars' performance, Alejandro Furas, Secretary General, Global NCAP, urged all manufacturers to ‘aspire to and achieve this level of crash test performance going forward.’

The tests were conducted under the ‘Safer Cars For India’ campaign launched by Global NCAP in 2014 to promote safer vehicles in the country.