The President of Latin NCAP Maria Fernanda Rodriguez said, "once again we are very disillusioned by General Motors. As a global brand they offer good safety levels for other regions, they should show that all consumers, regardless of geography, are valued the same when it comes to safety. We expect GM to follow other brands, who have made progress in equalising safety. GM have said that they aim to improve the safety levels of their cars in the future, change needs to come faster as we are very concerned about the number of consumers who are today traveling in unsafe cars and will continue to do so without change in the upcoming years. Long term measures are not good enough, Latin American consumers need safer cars now".
In April this year Latin NCAP had crash tested the Chevrolet Sail also made in India and exported to the region. The car scored a zero star rating in its crash test on both adult and child safety parameters.
In India, Chevrolet offers a driver-side airbag on LT variants of the Beat, but only the top-end LTZ variant gets dual airbags and Anti-braking system (ABS). The company did not confirm whether it was the India-made car that was crash tested. Neither was the company willing to confirm that it was the Chevrolet Beat that is exported as the Spark GT to Latin America - even though Latin NCAP states the same. However the company did release the following statement: "GM shares the goal of improving road safety worldwide, including the adoption of robust auto safety standards. In India, GM will offer air bags and ABS in our upcoming Beat Essentia family. We will continue to meet all safety regulations in India." Unfortunately, one will have to wait until 2018 when new safety norms are expected to kick in. This will see airbags and ABS become standard safety equipment in Indian cars - in conjunction with the adoption of a Bharat NCAP crash test regime too.
In April this year Latin NCAP had crash tested the Chevrolet Sail - also made in India and exported to the region. The car scored a zero star rating in its crash test on both adult and child safety parameters. In November 2014 Latin NCAP had tested the India-made Maruti Suzuki Swift. The Swift sold in Latin America comes with dual-airbags as a standard fitment which helped the car to score 3 stars in adult occupant safety and one star for child occupant safety. However it is important to mention that in that crash the body shell of the car was rated as unstable. A year later, the Hyundai Grand i10 exported from India also scored a zero star rating when its safety parameters were put to test by Latin NCAP in September 2015.
