The Mahindra Scorpio-N has kept the Indian SUV maker’s record intact. Another 5 Star car with a strong showing at the latest round of crash tests of Indian-made cars. Safety agency Global NCAP has crash-tested 4 popular models from India. This includes three from Maruti Suzuki and one from Mahindra. While the Marutis have fared poorly, the Mahindra Scorpio-N is the only one to score 5 stars for adult occupant protection. It received 29.25 of a maximum of 34 points. The Scorpio-N has also secured 3 stars for child occupant protection with a score of 28.93 points of a possible 49 maximum. This score is significant since this is also only the second test under Global NCAP’s new more stringent protocol for its Safer Cars for India crash test programme. As is customary for crash testing, the Mahindra Scorpio-N was tested in its base or entry variant, which has dual airbags, ABS (anti-lock brakes), and ISOFIX child seat anchors as standard. The lack of a third three-point seatbelt is what pulled down the score for rear occupant protection.
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Alejandro Furas, Secretary General of Global NCAP said, “Global NCAP congratulates Mahindra on its continuing commitment to safety, achieving five stars for adult occupant protection under our new, more demanding crash test protocols.” While the Scorpio-N is the first Mahindra model to be tested under the newly revised protocol, it is not the first to achieve 5 stars. The Mahindra XUV 700 and XUV300 have also done so under the previous protocol.
Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director – Auto and Farm Sectors, Mahindra & Mahindra, said, “We are thrilled that the Scorpio-N has received a five-star rating from GNCAP as per its new assessment protocols. This is especially a matter of pride for us as it is the first body-on-frame SUV to receive this honour.”
David Ward, Executive President, Towards Zero Foundation adds, "Indian manufacturers such as Mahindra have clearly demonstrated their ongoing commitment to improving vehicle safety performance. This is very welcome, and we look forward to this promising momentum being maintained when Bharat NCAP is launched next year.” Global NCAP’s updated protocol now includes frontal and side crash tests, the need for systems like Electronic Stability Control (ESC), pedestrian protection and a side impact pole test. These amongst many other requirements are what is assessed and assigned individual scores that lead to the final star rating. And so to clarify, cars with a 5-star rating under the older protocol may or may not get the same score under the new regime. 
The Scorpio-N’s crash test was voluntary – which means the car was tested by Global NCAP at Mahindra’s behest. But that does not mean any special privileges were afforded to the company as is often a common misnomer. Recently a similar set of tests were also carried out on the Skoda Kushaq and Volkswagen Taigun – and both cars scored 5 stars for child and adult occupant protection – making them the cars with the highest score for Indian-made vehicles so far. Earlier this year we have also seen other cars like the Kia Carens, Toyota Urban Cruiser, Hyundai i20 and Creta, Honda Jazz and City, Renault Kiger and Nissan Magnite being tested too – but all those tests followed the older protocol. While the Honda, Toyota, Renault and Nissan models scored 4 stars for adult occupant protection, the Hyundai and Kia models got 3 stars.
