Front Passenger Airbag To Soon Be Mandatory For All New Cars In India

Most cars under Rs 5 lakh offer only a driver airbag as standard and charge a premium for the co-passenger airbag

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued a draft notification regarding the new safety feature. 

• Co-driver airbag will soon be made mandatory for every car sold in India.

• More than five entry-level cars fail to offer a co-driver airbag as standard.

• Once effective, most of the budget cars will see a marginal price hike.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a draft notification to carmakers asking them to provide front passenger airbags on all models. It will soon be made mandatory for all new cars sold in India to offer dual front airbags as a standard fitment across all variants. We are yet to learn the exact date from when the new safety norms will come into the effect. 

Currently, many budget offerings are equipped only with a single driver airbag. The higher-end variants of the cars get dual front airbags, which means you have to pay a premium for the basic safety kit. 

Cars such as Maruti S-Presso, Alto, WagonR, Celerio, Renault Kwid, Datsun redi-GO, Hyundai Santro and Mahindra Bolero do not offer a co-driver airbag as standard, but as an option from the mid-spec or top-end trims. Maruti Eeco does not even offer a co-driver airbag as an option.

As per the latest notification, every new car sold here will be required to have a co-driver airbag. This will lead to a marginal price hike for all the budget cars which miss out on the feature simply for cost-cutting measures. Once effective, we expect to see a hike of around Rs 10,000. 

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The addition of a co-driver airbag will increase the safety of the car and save people from major injuries during an accident. All cars above Rs 5-6 lakh offer dual airbags as standard. The other safety features that are mandatory in every car include ABS, Electronic Braking Distribution (EBD), rear parking sensors, front seatbelt reminders, high-speed alert system, and manual override for central locking.