Crash Protection will account for only 55% of the total score for the star rating. The Electronic Stability Control system, curtain airbags to be mandatory.
21 Nov 2025 | 3986 Views | By Kiran Murali
The government has proposed changes to the existing Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat NCAP) framework to broaden the scope of passenger vehicle safety star rating, covering a wider spectrum of vehicular safety.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on Friday released a new draft that aims to ...
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The government has proposed changes to the existing Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat NCAP) framework to broaden the scope of passenger vehicle safety star rating, covering a wider spectrum of vehicular safety.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on Friday released a new draft that aims to move BNCAP beyond traditional metrics to assess the advanced active and passive safety systems that come in modern passenger vehicles.
A car will now need the ability to prevent accidents, protect vulnerable road users, and support occupants after a crash - not just withstand an impact - to get a higher star rating.
According to the new draft of AIS-197 Revision 1 [Bharat NCAP 2.0], a vehicle model's overall safety star rating is proposed to be determined by its performance across five key assessment parameters.
Safe Driving, Accident Avoidance, Crash Protection, Vulnerable Road User Protection and Post-Crash Safety are the proposed five assessment verticals, with each contributing to a combined rating out of 100 points.
The existing BNCAP ratings are based on evaluation across two areas - Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) and Child Occupant Protection (COP), and fitment of safety assist Technologies.
However, the new draft proposes a single, combined rating to be awarded based entirely on the vehicle's performance across the five newly proposed assessment areas.
With the addition of new parameters, the crash score alone will not be enough to secure high star ratings, unlike the existing BNCAP. A model’s crash protection will have a weightage of 55% on the total score achieved to calculate the overall assessment score.
"While a safety rating can never fully capture the complexity of the real world, the vehicle improvements and the technology brought over the past years by the application of high safety standards have the potential to benefit consumers and society as a whole," the draft said.
The new guidelines are likely to be rolled out in October 2027 as the existing Bharat NCAP guidelines, which were rolled out in October 2023, are set to expire on September 20, 2027.
For consumers, the new framework provides a more realistic safety rating, considering crash performance, accident avoidance. and post-incident measures.
For manufacturers, the safety bar will be raised significantly. Integrating advanced active and passive features is crucial to achieving a high star rating.
The Electronic Stability Control system and Side Head Protection Device or Curtain Airbags are mandatory for a star rating. A 5-star rating will require at least 70 points out of 100 from 2027 to 2029, and 80 points from 2029 to 2031.
Crash Protection
The existing Bharat NCAP uses three crash tests - a 64 kmph frontal impact, a 50 kmph side impact, and a 29 kmph pole side impact against barriers.
BNCAP 2.0 proposes to increase crash testing to five mandatory tests, conducted on the base variants of all models being assessed.
The new tests include a 64 kmph offset frontal impact and a 50 kmph full-width frontal impact against rigid barriers for better assessment.
Also added are a 32 kmph oblique pole impact, a 50 kmph lateral mobile barrier impact, and a 50 kmph mobile rigid rear impact test.
These five tests will assess injuries to adult and child occupants using sophisticated crash test dummies, resulting in separate scores for adult and child.
Vulnerable Road User Protection
The proposal gives a big focus on protecting others, giving vulnerable road users protection the second-highest importance. This parameter has a weightage of 20% on the total score.
This new assessment area requires several mandatory impact tests on the vehicle's front end. These checks focus on limiting injuries to pedestrians and motorcyclists.
Tests include evaluating the bumper's effect on an adult's legs and assessing how the windshield and engine hood area reduce impact damage to the heads of both adults and children.
Safe Driving and Accident Avoidance get 10% weightage each on the total score. There is also an optional assessment of the Autonomous Emergency Braking System (AEBS) on adult and child pedestrians, as well as for car to motorcyclist in rear moving scenario.
Safe Driving Technologies
Bharat NCAP 2.0 looks to reward vehicles with accident-prevention technology that alerts the driver. This assessment vertical has a 10% weightage on the total score. The proposal specifies a list of eight technologies to warn drivers of unsafe conditions.
The specified technologies include seat belt reminders, driver drowsiness and collision warnings, and lane departure warning systems to enhance awareness.
Other technologies are blind spot detection, rear cross traffic alerts, traffic sign recognition, speed limit information systems, and hill hold assist systems.
OEMs can offer any number of the listed systems. However, the final safety score will only count points awarded for a maximum of five of the safe driving technologies offered.
Accident Avoidance
This assessment promotes active safety technologies that autonomously help the driver avoid accidents. This vertical also contributes 10% to the overall safety score.
The draft proposes specific avoidance systems, primarily focusing on Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and Autonomous Emergency Braking Systems (AEBS).
ESC will be mandatory for a vehicle to even be eligible for a star rating, though offering the AEBS remains voluntary for manufacturers.
Post-Crash Safety
This assessment, which gets a 5% weightage, evaluates how the car helps occupants mitigate post-crash consequences and assists with emergency evacuation.
Mandatory checks include energy management for fire and electrical hazards and ease of occupant extrication. Optional features include multi-collision braking, SOS calls and rescue sheets.
The final score for this area is the total sum of points earned for both the mandatory and any voluntarily installed post-crash technologies.