Why?
In September 2022, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways in the Indian government released an ad regarding road safety. This ad, featuring actor Akshay Kumar as a police officer, takes a jibe at the father of the girl who just got married and is going away from her (her parents’) home to her in-laws place - vidaai. Akshay Kumar points out that the father is careless for letting the newly married couple leave in a car with just two airbags, and says that he should have instead gotten a car with at least 6 airbags. While the issue with the airbags is correct, this campaign got a lot of criticism for two reasons:
- The ad suggests and encourages the practice of dowry.
- The ad takes the blame away from inefficient road infrastructure (dividers, dark roads, road design/safety, traffic signs) and unsafe driving, and shifts it towards owners and users of cars for not having bought cars with a large number of airbags.
The Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, had pushed for six airbags in cars after renowned industrialist Cyrus Mistry died in a car accident. The transport ministry had been pushing for stricter rules regarding airbags in cars but faced a lot of resistance from some car companies citing increased vehicle prices, so they had settled on October 2022 as a date when new rules would be enforced. However, the government and car companies have drastically different estimates of what four additional airbags would cost - government estimates <$75 while auto market data provider JATO Dynamics estimates $230+. Later that month, the government announced that the date when new rules - all passenger cars would be required to have 6+ airbags - would be enforced, was shifted to October 2023, a year later than the original plan.
In any case, what fraction of cars available in the market back then (September 2022, both used and new cars) have 6+ airbags and what is the cost point of these 6+ airbags cars? I went to cardekho.com and scraped off data from there to figure that out myself.
What fraction of cars in the Indian market have 6+ airbags, and how does it differ by budget?
New cars, September 2022
As expected, the availability of 6+ airbag cars depended on the price point. But what is shocking is that the price point at which a substantial fraction of cars were available with 6+ airbags, was pretty high. Under 5 lakh rupees, no new car was available with 6+ airbags. Under 10 lakh rupees, only 3 cars (approx. 1% of the total new cars available in that price bracket), came with 6+ airbags. Under 15 lakh rupees, only 32 cars (around 7% of the total new cars in the price bracket), and only if one were willing to shell out at least 25 lakh rupees, 210 cars (around 26% of the total new cars in the price bracket) came with 6+ airbags.
Used cars, September 2022
The situation was not very different in the used car market. Under 3 lakh rupees, only 7 cars (2% of the used cars available in the price bracket), under 5 lakh rupees only 28 cars (2% of the total used cars in the price bracket), and under 10 lakh rupees only 113 cars (5% of the total used cars in the price bracket), came with 6+ airbags.
New cars, June 2023
I went back again in June 2023 to see if there have been any changes in the availability and the affordability of cars with 6+ airbags. I only looked at new cars so far, and the situation has only improved marginally, and that too for cars available at a higher price point (> 15 lakh rupees).
