India-made Chevrolet Beat fails Latin NCAP tests

The ‘Made-in-India’ Chevrolet Beat, which is sold as the Spark GT in Latin America, has scored a zero-star rating in the latest round of crash tests conducted by the New Car Assessment Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean (Latin NCAP).

The Classic version of the Spark GT, manufactured at the Talegaon plant in India, scored zero stars for adult and child occupant protection. The Spark GT is a popular model in Mexico and Colombia and GM India had recently started its exports to Argentina as well.

Expressing disappointment over the latest results, Maria Fernanda Rodriguez, president, Latin NCAP, 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, which have made progress in equalising safety. GM has 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 travelling 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.”

The poor crash results of the India-made GM car will not only dent the company’s reputation, but also the country’s ‘Make-in-India’ campaign. Historically, India-made cars have not been known for their quality and this will further hamper the global appeal for cars made in the country. Heavy under-utilisation of the 130,000 unit per-annum capacity at the Talegaon plant, due to the sluggish domestic demand for GM cars in India prompted a change in the company’s strategy after which it had ramped up exports to Latin America.

GM India exports the left-hand drive version of the Beat to Mexico, Chile, Peru, Central American and Caribbean countries and Uruguay.

Test Results

Latin NCAP comments on the crash test of the Chevrolet Spark GT are reproduced as under:

Adult occupants

“The protection offered to the driver’s head and chest was poor while neck protection was weak due to the high chest deflection caused by its contact with steering wheel as well as the head impact with the steering wheel. For these reasons the star capping was applied. Passenger’s head protection was good, chest protection was poor. Both passengers' knees could impact with dangerous structures in the dashboard. The body shell was rated as stable. Footwell area was also stable. Side impact test was not performed because the capping was applied in the frontal test. The car did not have side airbags, but had side impact structural reinforcements in the doors. The car was not equipped with ABS and/or ESC as standard. Side pole impact test was not performed; the models did not offer side head protection airbags as standard.”

Child occupant

“The child seat for the three-year-old child was not able to prevent forward movement during the frontal impact despite being mounted with the ISOFIX anchorages, while top tethers were not used due to their location. Both results explain the low score in dynamics for child occupants. Many of the CRS that were assessed for installation failed due to the limited instructions in the manual. The marking and instructions in the car in relation to CRS use as well as ISOFIX use were poor which explains the low score in vehicle assessment.”