BANGALORE: Thanks to the rules being toughened up as an attempt to improve one of the world’s worst road safety records, the world’s largest air bag suppliers are now starting up plants to ramp up India.
Reports in India have shown that a person is killed every four minutes in a road accident with an estimate of 141,000 in 2014. However less than a third of 2.6 million cars being sold each year carry air bags due to the cost conscious market, reports Mangalore diary.
Nonetheless, a planned law is set to impose the standard tests by 2017 setting up opportunities for makers of safety equipment while cars that come without air bags are expected to receive the lowest safety ratings after tests. Hence consumers will be forced to consider the risks in driving around cars that come in cheap at the cost of their safety.
According to data from Transparency Market Research, by 2020, by and large the revenues from airbag sales in India will increase by 11 percent and is likely to hit $2 billion surpassing the 9 percent growth expected in China. By then India is said to sell over 5 million cars a year
Some of the world’s top air bag makers are all set to roll out which includes Autoliv Inc , Takata Corp, Toyoda Gosei Co and TRW Automotive Inc.
Ayay Bandopadhyay, automotive research analyst at Transparency Market Research said, “We expect that within five years the large airbag makers will have a manufacturing hub in India.”
Air bags in India are expensive mainly because most of the parts, such as inflators, are imported. And without rules imposing their use in a country of poorly maintained vehicles and overcrowded, badly lit and potholed roads, carmakers often opt not to add a costly component that could drive up prices.
Disclosing the fact that air bags were generally ruled out was mainly because they were imported hence expensive. Therefore carmakers to avoid building up the prices often discarded the idea or air bags.
As part of the new rules for the Road Transport and Safety Bill, the requirement for air bags isn’t mandatory however crash tests have been made compulsory for new models sold in India from October 2017. The new rule will be deliberated in India’s upper house of parliament within this year before it becomes a law.
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