New Mandatory Dual-Airbag Rule: Maruti WagonR, Hyundai Santro, Renault Kwid And Others Under The Scanner

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has announced the deadline for its new rule.

• This will result in a price hike of around Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 for the entry-level models of Maruti Suzuki, Renault, Datsun, Hyundai, and Mahindra.

• The new rule sees dual airbags added to the compulsory list of safety features which include parking sensors, ABS, front seatbelt reminder, and high speed alert.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has made another amendment to the safety norms for four-wheelers in the country. It will now be mandatory for all vehicles to come equipped with dual airbags as standard. This means the entry-level models of some carmakers will see a slight increase in prices.

In 2019, MoRTH had stated that cars should offer at least one airbag as standard, a safety feature previously considered a luxury by many buyers. However, the “at least one” bit meant the likes of Maruti Suzuki, Renault, and Hyundai could offer their entry-level models with just a single airbag. Now, with the new rule, existing models are required to offer dual airbags as standard from August 31. The deadline for new models is April 1.

Models such as the Maruti WagonR, Celerio, S-Presso, and Alto do not get dual airbags in their lower-spec variants, instead, they come as an optional extra. Meanwhile, the Maruti Eeco, Mahindra Bolero, and Datsun redi-GO do not offer a passenger-side airbag at all. Even the Renault Kwid only gets dual airbags from the RXT variant onwards.

With this change, the government has added another key safety feature to the mandatory list comprising ABS, front seatbelt reminder, high-speed alert, and rear parking sensors. The addition of another airbag will see an increase of around Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 in the prices of the entry-level variants of the WagonR (Rs 4.15 lakh to Rs 6.18 lakh), Celerio (Rs 4.53 lakh to Rs 5.78 lakh), Alto (Rs 2.99 lakh to Rs 4.48 lakh), S-Presso (Rs 3.70 lakh to Rs 5.18 lakh), Renault Kwid (Rs 3.12 lakh to Rs 5.31 lakh), and Hyundai Santro (Rs 4.67 lakh to Rs 6.35 lakh). 

The new rule will also affect prices across all variants of cars such as the Datsun redi-GO (Rs 2.86 lakh to Rs 4.82 lakh), Maruti Eeco (Rs 3.97 lakh to Rs 5.18 lakh), and the Mahindra Bolero (Rs 8.17 lakh to Rs 9.14 lakh).

All prices, ex-showroom