Keeping aside the talk about market slowdown in the Indian automobile industry, India is still one big market for car manufacturers. And hence, there also arises a big question for safety. Under the Safer Cars For India initiative, Global NCAP has now crash tested the Datsun redi-GO hatchback which has scored only 1 star for adult safety and 2 stars for child safety. The Datsun redi-GO is a budget hatchback in India and rivals the likes of Maruti Suzuki S-Presso & Renault Kwid.
For adult protection in the Datsun redi-GO, the driver head received adequate protection and the passenger at the front also had good protection. Neck protection was also good for both adult occupants at the front. However, the chest protection for the driver was rated poor and there was marginal protection for the front passenger. Driver knees also had marginal protection for safety while the front passenger got adequate knee protection. The knees were facing a possibility of injury due to the structure fit behind the dashboard. The body shell of the redi-GO car was rated as unstable and even the footwell area was claimed to be unstable.
For child occupant safety, with a 3 year old dummy on a forward facing child seat with an adult seat belt could not reduce the forward movement during impack and it offered poor protection to the childs head, but adequate protection to the chest. The CRS which is recommended was incompatible as the car has 3 point static seat belts in the rear seats. Also there is no ISOFIX mount offered for child safety. Global NCAP wasn’t impressed especially because all seats were not having 3 point belts.
Datsun recently launched the Go & Go+ CVT variants in India. However, by 2021-22, Datsun is expected to shut down and the cars we have on sale as of now, will be sold till the end of their life cycle.