India-made Chevrolet Beat fails crash test

Among other vehicles, General Motors India manufactures Chevrolet Beat for export market as well. India is after all an export hub for GM. One of the biggest export market for India-made Chevrolet Beat is Mexico, where the car is sold as Chevrolet Spark GT.

Assembled in India, and Chevrolet Spark GT is popular in Mexico and Colombia. Latin NCAP decided to check the safety rating of this India-made car and put it for crash test. Sadly, it returned a 0 rating.

It’s but obvious that any car, big or small, if it excludes airbags in its basic form, a frontal crash test result is going to highlight the lack of safety. Latin NCAP has spelled out its concern for General Motors’ cars sold in South America and Caribbean. Chevrolet Spark GT acquired zero stars. Lack of airbags combined with improper instruction for Child Restraint System installation has done the Chevrolet Spark GT in.

In fact General Motors is in a thick soup in South America owing to crash test results. Earlier in 2016, Global NCAP sent a letter to company CEO, Mary Barra pertaining to safety improvements. GM committed to plans increase spending by $5 billion to improve cars sold in Latin America by including two airbags and three-point seatbelts for all occupants as a standard feature.

Alejandro Furas, Latin NCAP’s Secretary General says the latest result is a disappointment. Chevrolet Spark can easily offer high protection as it did earlier. Tested by Euro NCAP in 2009, the base version was equipped with 6 airbags, and scored four stars. In fact, the European version Spark GT sports airbags as a standard feature and is sold at a similar price band compared to the Latin American version with no airbags.

This article first appeared on Rushlane.com