The planned Bharat NCAP 2.0 version, scheduled for launch in October 2027, will assess not only collision outcomes but the entire vehicle safety chain. The proposed system will examine aspects ranging from accident prevention to the protection of passengers, pedestrians, and other vulnerable road users, as well as post-incident events.
Union Minister of Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari announced these timelines during the Annual SIAM conference in September 2026. This second phase is being developed against the backdrop of the nearing completion of the current first phase of the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme, or Bharat NCAP.
According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' draft AIS-197 Revision 1, the first phase of Bharat NCAP started on October 1, 2023, and is valid until September 30, 2027. This revision project serves as the basis for developing Bharat NCAP 2.0.
The proposed changes will allow the safety rating to become a much more comprehensive measure of a vehicle's performance, considering not just the moment of the crash, but also the periods before, during, and after it.
Bharat NCAP is India's proprietary vehicle testing and safety rating program. It was officially launched by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in August 2023 and began operating on October 1, 2023.
The program covers passenger cars in category M1 with a total mass of less than 3.5 tonnes. Participation is voluntary, allowing manufacturers the option to offer suitable vehicles for assessment.
The Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) acts as the guarantor of the program, while testing is conducted by accredited agencies possessing the necessary resources. The main objective of Bharat NCAP is to provide car buyers with a unified safety standard. While a vehicle must meet mandatory regulatory requirements for sale in India, Bharat NCAP goes further by conducting specialized tests and assigning a rating from one to five stars.
The concept is straightforward: instead of focusing solely on the car's price, design, or features, buyers receive an additional benchmark to understand how the vehicle performs in standardized safety tests. The government also positions this program as a tool to incentivize manufacturers to improve their vehicle safety and strengthen safety standards in India.
The existing Bharat NCAP system generally assesses three areas: Adult Occupant Protection (AOP), Child Occupant Protection (COP), and Safety Assist Technologies (SAT). Vehicles undergo prescribed crash tests and other checks, and their results are used to determine the overall star rating.
The current structure includes a frontal offset crash test at 64 km/h, a side impact test with a moving deformable barrier at 50 km/h, and a side impact test with a pole, according to AIS-197 requirements. Thus, the assessment goes beyond the simple question of passenger cabin integrity.
Adult Occupant Protection analyzes the risk of injury to adults under various collision conditions and seat positions. Child Occupant Protection examines the level of protection provided to younger passengers, including the use and installation of child restraint systems. Safety Assist Technologies, in turn, cover systems designed to prevent accidents or reduce their severity.
The reason for separately assessing adult and child safety is that a vehicle may provide different levels of protection for adults and children, so Bharat NCAP evaluates these two parameters independently. The adult assessment focuses on passenger protection during specified collision scenarios, while the child assessment considers the effectiveness of protecting younger passengers and the functioning of child restraint systems in the vehicle. This also means that the overall star rating of a vehicle is not a simple result of one test; it reflects performance across several safety parameters.
For consumers, separate scores can provide more information than just a star rating. CIRT guarantees Bharat NCAP, and testing is carried out through designated agencies with the required capabilities. The broader automotive testing ecosystem includes organizations such as the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and the International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT). Manufacturers submit suitable vehicles for evaluation. The existing framework specifies procedures related to the chosen test variant, including provisions for the base model variant. This distinction is important when reading Bharat NCAP results, as one cannot automatically assume that the rating applies to all model variants if the official assessment does not cover those variants.
Bharat NCAP ratings range from one to five stars, with a higher rating indicating higher performance according to the program's evaluation criteria. However, a five-star rating does not guarantee that passengers will avoid injuries in any real-world accident. NCAP testing is conducted under standardized conditions and is intended for comparing vehicle safety performance. It is important to distinguish Bharat NCAP from mandatory certification requirements for selling a vehicle in India. Bharat NCAP is voluntary and aims to provide consumers with additional information beyond the mandatory regulatory framework. Therefore, a vehicle that has undergone testing or assessment under Bharat NCAP should not be confused with regulatory approval.
Since its launch, Bharat NCAP has increasingly become part of the discussion on safety when launching new vehicles, and ratings have become a factor in how manufacturers present vehicles to consumers, especially in light of the growing importance of safety in the passenger car market.
The transition to Bharat NCAP 2.0 involves a much broader approach. Draft AIS-197 Revision 1 divides Bharat NCAP 2.0 into five safety verticals: Safe Driving, Collision Avoidance, Crash Protection, Vulnerable Road User Protection, and Post-Crash Safety. This is a significant change, as the current system mainly focuses on passenger protection and driver assistance technologies, whereas the proposed structure considers the entire safety chain.
The draft structure uses a 100-point scoring system, with Crash Protection accounting for 55% of the score. The remaining weight is distributed among other safety areas. In other words, the crash itself will remain an important part of the rating, but it will no longer be the sole element of the safety story.
In the proposed new structure of Bharat NCAP 2.0, the Crash Protection assessment is expanded to five mandatory tests: frontal offset crash at 64 km/h against a deformable barrier, frontal crash at 50 km/h against a rigid full-width barrier, side impact crash at 50 km/h against a moving deformable barrier, oblique side impact crash at 32 km/h against a rigid pole, and rear crash at 50 km/h against a moving rigid barrier. The addition of full-width frontal and rear crash tests means that the proposed system will study accident scenarios beyond the scope of the existing structure's primary tests. This provides the second phase with a broader testing coverage and allows for the inclusion of various types of impacts in the overall safety assessment.
One of the biggest differences in Bharat NCAP 2.0 is that the program is designed to study what happens even before the accident. Collision Avoidance is one of the five proposed verticals. It focuses on vehicle technologies and features that can help prevent or mitigate the severity of a collision.
Safe Driving is another proposed category that expands the assessment beyond passive vehicle protection functions. These categories shift the focus from the simple question 'How well does this car perform in a crash?' to the broader question: 'How does this car contribute to safety at different stages of a road incident?'
Bharat NCAP 2.0 also offers a separate category for Vulnerable Road User Protection, directly involving pedestrians and other vulnerable road users in the safety assessment process. The proposed structure also asks a different question: what happens after a collision occurs? Post-Crash Safety is one of the five assessment areas. Minister Gadkari described Bharat NCAP 2.0 as covering the entire safety chain, including post-accident evacuation and assistance. Gadkari stated: 'We are going to assess the entire accident chain,' adding that the program will consider new technologies developed both globally and by startups.
This means the assessment aims to go beyond the moment of impact and consider safety considerations immediately following the accident. This adds another layer to the program's approach: avoiding the accident, protecting people during the impact, and addressing safety issues after the collision.
For buyers, Bharat NCAP provides an additional way to compare cars beyond mandatory safety requirements. Consumers can review the vehicle's overall rating, as well as the scores for adult and child protection, and the safety technologies included in the assessment. The rating is not intended to replace other factors when buying a car. Price, size, fuel efficiency, features, driving requirements, and other considerations remain relevant, but the proposed 2.0 structure will expand this information. Ultimately, buyers will gain a more complete picture of how the vehicle performs regarding crash protection, collision avoidance, safe driving, vulnerable user protection, and post-crash safety.
Bharat NCAP is part of a much broader road safety issue focused on vehicle design. Vehicle design and safety technology can influence the outcome of an accident, but they cannot solve all the reasons why accidents happen. The Ministry has identified several factors related to road accidents, including speeding, mobile phone use, alcohol intoxication, driving in the oncoming lane, lane discipline violations, running red lights, and failure to use helmets and seatbelts. Vehicle condition, road conditions, and weather can also play a role.
Many countries have their own NCAPs. Government data recorded 168,491 road traffic fatalities in 2022. Thus, Bharat NCAP addresses only part of this broader equation: vehicle safety performance. Its proposed second phase will expand this role by examining what the vehicle can do to prevent accidents, how it protects people during a crash, how it protects vulnerable users, and what happens afterward.
The current phase of Bharat NCAP remains valid until September 30, 2027. The government has proposed introducing Bharat NCAP 2.0 starting October 2027, using draft AIS-197 Revision 1 as the foundation for the next stage. The proposed transition transforms India's vehicle safety rating system from a relatively focused crash and occupant protection program into a broader safety assessment. The familiar one-to-five-star rating will remain the language of communication with consumers in vehicle safety, but the underlying assessment will become much more complex. The main shift is in the question Bharat NCAP seeks to answer: instead of only looking at how the car behaves during a collision, the proposed system will examine the vehicle's safety journey—from collision avoidance to passenger and vulnerable road user protection.
