Tata Altroz Facelift vs Maruti Baleno: Bharat NCAP Crash Test Results And Scores Compared

The facelifted Tata Altroz was recently crash tested by Bharat NCAP, where it scored a full 5-star safety rating for both adult and child protection. Before this, the Maruti Baleno underwent its Bharat NCAP test in June 2025, where it scored a 4-star crash test rating. So, how safe is Tata’s premium hatchback compared to its Maruti rival? Let us compare the Altroz and Baleno’s Bharat NCAP crash test ratings and scores to find out:

Bharat NCAP Crash Test Ratings And Scores

Note: When Bharat NCAP tested the Baleno in June 2025, Maruti was offering the premium hatchback with both 2 airbags and 6 airbags. Currently, Maruti is offering 6 airbags as a standard fitment across all trims. So, for this comparison, we are considering the crash test results of the Baleno with 6 standard airbags.

Let us take a look at how the two premium hatchback rivals have performed in their respective Bharat NCAP crash tests:

Tata Altroz Bharat NCAP Test

The facelifted Tata Altroz, in its frontal offset deformable test, offered ‘good’ protection to the driver’s head, neck, chest, pelvis, thighs and feet. Safety to the tibias was rated ‘adequate’. All critical parts of the co-driver got ‘good’ safety, except for the right tibia, protection to which was rated ‘adequate’.

In the side pole impact test, all parts of the occupant received ‘good’ protection. In the side movable deformable barrier test, however, protection to the passenger’s chest and abdomen was marked ‘marginal’ and ‘adequate’, respectively, while safety to the head and neck was ‘good’.

In its COP tests with the 18-month-old dummy, the Altroz scored 7.90 out of 8 points in the frontal crash test, but managed to achieve a full 4 out of 4 points in the side crash test. With the 3-year-old dummy, however, the premium hatchback managed a full 8 out of 8 and 4 out of 4 scores in frontal and side crash tests.

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Maruti Baleno Bharat NCAP Test

In the frontal offset deformable barrier test, the Maruti Baleno with 6 airbags, which we are considering for the comparison, offered ‘good’ protection to the driver’s head and neck, ‘marginal’ protection to chest, pelvis and thighs, and ‘adequate’ protection to tibias and feet. Similarly, the co-driver’s head and neck received ‘good’ safety, while for all the other critical parts, the protection was ‘adequate’.

In the side movable deformable barrier test, the Baleno fared better than the Altroz by offering ‘adequate’ safety to the passenger’s chest, while protection to his head, abdomen and pelvis was rated ‘good’. However, in the side pole impact test, all parts of the occupant received ‘good’ protection, similar to the Tata Altroz.

In terms of child safety results, the Baleno managed to get full marks in the side crash tests involving both dummies, but in the frontal crash tests, it scored 7.17 out of 8 points for the 18-month-old dummy and a disappointing 1.63 points out of 8 with the 3-year-old dummy.

Takeaways

From the above crash test results, it is clear that the Altroz managed to offer ‘good’ protection to more parts of the driver and co-driver in the frontal offset deformable barrier test, compared to the Baleno. In the Tata hatchback, both the front passengers received ‘good’ protection on their chests, pelvis, thighs and feet, which ranged from ‘adequate’ to even ‘marginal’ in the Baleno.

The tale is a bit different in the side movable barrier test, as the Baleno managed to get a ‘good’ safety rating for the occupant’s head, abdomen and pelvis, while getting an ‘adequate’ rating for his chest. The Altroz, on the other hand, offered ‘marginal’ protection to the occupant’s chest and ‘adequate’ safety to his abdomen. This explains the Altroz’s lower score in the side movable deformable barrier test, compared to the Maruti offering.

In the side pole impact test, however, both premium hatchbacks had a similar performance with ‘good’ protection offered to all critical parts of the passengers.

In the child safety tests, the scores differ by a huge margin, which we have compared below for easier understanding:

The above table clearly suggests that while the side crash tests resulted in similar scores for both Altroz and Baleno, the Maruti hatchback fell behind in the frontal crash test results, which explains its lower overall score.

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Safety Features On Offer

Both the Tata Altroz and Maruti Baleno come equipped with 6 airbags (as standard), electronic stability control (ESC), ABS with EBD, 3-point seatbelts for all passengers, a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS), a 360-degree camera and rear parking sensors. The Tata Altroz additionally comes with a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS).

Price And Rivals

Here are the current ex-showroom prices of both premium hatchbacks:

Both hatchbacks, while being rivals to each other, also lock horns with the Toyota Glanza and Hyundai i20.

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