NEW DELHI: Achieving a five-star safety rating will become significantly more challenging for automakers under the next phase of Bharat NCAP, set to take effect in October 2027. BNCAP 2.0 will require vehicles to undergo five crash tests, up from the current three, with full-frontal and rear-impact tests added to the existing offset frontal, side-impact, and side-pole tests.
Cars will be rated across five key categories: safe driving, accident avoidance, crash protection, vulnerable road-user protection, and post-crash safety. This means vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and electronic stability control (ESC)—which help prevent crashes—will score higher. Features like drowsiness detection, lane-departure warning, and forward-collision alerts will also influence ratings.
The road transport ministry released the draft star-rating protocol—Automotive Industry Standard (AIS) 197—on Thursday and invited stakeholder comments. A private-sector expert associated with drafting the new framework said, “This will be a paradigm shift in car-safety ratings and will surpass many global standards. The core aim of NCAPs globally is to ensure cars do not become death traps.”
The current BNCAP phase remains in force until September 2027.
BNCAP 2.0 will also assess female occupant safety, exceeding existing regulatory norms, and introduce evaluations for belted child occupants aged 6 and 10. The protocol proposes using advanced crash-test dummies for more accurate analysis in side-impact and pole-impact tests.
Post-crash safety—especially critical for electric vehicles—will be a major focus. Mandatory evaluations will include fire- and electrical-hazard management and safe occupant extrication. Optional assessments will cover multi-collision braking (MCB), emergency SOS/e-call systems, and hazard-warning functions.
The upgraded protocol will further examine safety features designed to reduce injuries to pedestrians and other vulnerable road users in the event of a collision.
