BackLet’s have equal airbag safety for car travellers
Every car passenger must have airbag protection. Rules must enforce this, as our market left to itself is unlikely to maximize safety. Carmakers should look for other costs to slash
PremiumTransport minister Nitin Gadkari has stirred a debate on the adequacy of airbags in cars sold in India. For front-seats, these inflatable crash-cushions were made mandatory in all new cars starting 1 April, with old ones now to be equipped likewise by year-end. On Sunday, though, the minister urged automakers to install at least six in all cars across segments and variants. He framed it as an issue of equity. It was lower middle-class buyers who mostly bought small cars, he said, and asked why they should be denied the benefits of safety that higher-priced vehicles offered. Gadkari did not mention any regulatory change in the works to that effect, which suggests carmakers have been left to ponder his appeal. However, while governments must take care not to over-regulate markets, a couple of reasons converge in favour of making airbags mandatory for all passengers. The first is India’s poor record on road security, the fixing of which has been a goal of the ministry. The second is that our market left to itself is unlikely to maximize safety, even if it evolves in the desired direction.
Carmakers operating at the entry-level of India’s car market have argued for years that it’s a question of affordability. As airbag installation could push a vehicle’s base cost up by as much as an estimated ₹6,000 on each extra unit, and small-car sales show high price-sensitivity, their evaluation of the trade-off has led them to opt for increased offtake on the back of prices kept within people’s reach. In any case, cars are very costly in India because of a heavy tax burden. Moreover, a series of rule revisions to contain carbon exhaust has been raising costs for manufacturers and the auto sector’s transition to cleaner energy has posed a panoply of challenges. As our market leader Maruti Suzuki had cautioned earlier, passive safety features being forced into small cars could push prospective buyers towards two-wheelers and thus expose them to greater road risk, which would be counterproductive.
While the argument that small-car safety should be compared with that of two-wheelers may hold practical merit, four-wheelers are a distinct class of vehicles that should have assured minimum standards of their own that make the most of extant devices to keep us safe. As seen decades ago in the US before it tightened safety norms, a car market can thrive without doing enough to minimize risks. Low buyer awareness of safeguards and a natural aversion to thoughts of mortality could combine to impair demand for safety, reducing the need of a supply response from carmakers. This market peculiarity is sufficient to justify intervention in the public interest. Just as we have begun to align ourselves with global practices on climate change, it’s time we did the same on road safety. Two-wheeler designers need to enhance their efforts on this front as well. As for a potential compression of our car market that additional costs could cause, governments at the central and state levels should counteract that impact by reducing taxes. Cars are slotted in the top bracket of GST and bear several state levies as well. The practice of squeezing cars for revenue is a legacy of the time they were considered luxuries. Gadkari’s advocacy of airbags implied that we’re well past that phase. He spoke not just of our lower middle-class, but also of our poor in need of equal treatment as passengers. As ride-hailing apps have democratized car travel, he had a point. Let’s have every car assure everyone it seats a safety cushion.
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