Mahindra safety push to target five-star ANCAP

Mahindra has vowed to address its sub-standard safety as it looks to expand its market reach beyond its commercial vehicle roots.

The Indian brand says all future new vehicle projects will target a five-star rating for the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) test that uses the same testing protocols as Euro NCAP.

It comes after the Scorpio SUV was awarded zero stars by ANCAP in 2023 (the company has confirmed it has upgrades coming later this year, bringing things such as autonomous emergency braking to add some much-needed stars).

While the soon-to-arrive Mahindra XUV 3XO – a budget-priced compact SUV – is not expected to achieve a five-star ANCAP rating, future models such as the upcoming next-generation Pik-Up ute and a new off-road SUV are expected to significantly improve on safety.

“We do recognise that Australia is a critical market for us,” said Velusamy R, President of Automotive Technology and Product Development at Mahindra.

“We need two things. One is we need a hybrid … and we need ANCAP. So we are working on the ANCAP for our future programs that we are launching and the new vehicles that will come out will have the ANCAP [five stars].”

The product development engineer said the brand’s focus had been on the Indian market and at times dealing with demand that outstripped its ability to produce cars.

As such the company had been testing cars to the Global NCAP safety protocols; GNCAP focuses on emerging markets such as India and tests cars to a lower standard, making it easier to achieve five stars.

But as the company increasingly ramps up its efforts to better compete on a global scale it sees safety as a major focus.

That, in turn, means achieving a five-star rating with Euro NCAP and ANCAP.

But Velusamy R says one big difference between GNCAP and ANCAP testing is in the deformation of the front-end of the car.

In defending some missing safety features on its upcoming XUV 3XO – it lacks a front centre airbag, rear cross-traffic alert and blind-spot warning, for example – he said the basic structure of the vehicle was sound.

“If you look at safety of the car, the car is safe,” he said. “You might have seen 40 per cent of our car is steel, and we have all the elements of the safety technology.

“I am not very sure we are struggling on safety, but I would say we may be struggling to meet one of the regulations of the safety.

“You have to tune, and you have to make it softer [for ANCAP]. And then you have to bring those components into production.

“It’s just the tuning that you have to do.”

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