The upcoming Suzuki Ignis (or Maruti Suzuki Ignis in India) is going to be a global product, hence it interests independent safety agencies like Euro NCAP to asses the vehicle. Although the Indian model might end up with slightly different specifications, here’s how the Euro-spec version fared in the recent crash tests.
The regular variant, which gets front and side airbags, scored three out of five stars. That includes a 79 per cent score for both adult and child occupants, a 67 per cent for pedestrian safety, and a paltry 25 per cent in terms of safety assist — due to lack of standard driver aids like lane-assist or autonomous braking.
To address that, Suzuki has the Ignis with safety pack. It includes a dual camera setup to aid in autonomous emergency braking, lane assist, and even speed assist. That bumps the overall safety rating to a full fat five stars, and improved overall scores: 87 per cent for adult protection, 77 per cent for pedestrian protection, and 60 per cent for safety assist.
The Ignis still misses out on ISOFIX child seat mounting points, which Maruti just made available on the Ciaz midsize saloon, and driver knee airbag.
The official video by Euro NCAP shows how the Ignis performs when undergoing frontal impact, full-width impact, side impact, and pole tests. The vehicle equipped with the optional safety pack works well in all tests except for one.
It would be great to see the Indian model offering similar levels of safety, unlike what happened with some of the other MSIL products which had a decent safety in Europe but their Indian versions failed miserably.
The Maruti Suzuki Ignis is expected to go on sale in the country next year.
