Bajaj Qute vs NCAP Ratings Is a Qute Lil’ Quarrel

Bajaj had recently said that it’s quadricycle ‘Qute’ is safer than Volkswagen’s Polo.

Bajaj Qute during the NCAP safety test. (Photo: Youtube Screengrab/Euro NCAP)

People talk. In fact, they talk all the time. It is an important activity – it facilitates communication and interaction. The human race would probably be lagging a few centuries behind if we didn’t learn to talk. What’s more important, though, is to know when to stop, pause or plain and simply leave a conversation alone – most married men know exactly what that means. Those who don’t, might not stay married for much longer, anyway. Ronan Keating was probably referring to this exact situation when he sang the lines, “you say it best, when you say nothing at all.”

So what exactly does any of this have to do with anything remotely automotive? It’s simple – someone talked but didn’t quite know when to stop and it all ended up in a syndrome that refers to having your foot stuck in your mouth (though that’s highly impossible unless you have some mad yoga skills). Just last week, there was a lot of chatter going around about the Bajaj Qute quadricycle having achieved a 1 star safety rating in Euro NCAP crash tests. A bunch of quadricycles were put through the tests along with the Qute and pretty much every one of them ended up scoring the same, except for one of them which had an airbag.

Anyway, Bajaj Auto went on to issue a press statement about the 1-star rating along with its FY16 sales figures – 334 units to 19 global markets. Things were going great till about this time and we were happy, Bajaj Auto – really happy. It does give great boost to the whole ‘Make in India’ philosophy after all. Just like most good things in life though, they reach a peak and then the only way further is to head South, which is precisely what happened. This is the point in our daily lives that it would help everyone tremendously to know when to stop talking.

The same press release also stated that “Speaking of cars, in a recent Euro NCAP report, the Bajaj Qute was accorded a 1 (one) star rating, superior to the 0 (zero) star rating of popular cars, including the VW Polo, Ford Figo, Hyundai i10, Maruti Alto, and Tata Nano.” On the outset, it sounds like a pretty bold statement and to make bold statements you better be ready to back it up when required. Trouble is, a couple of points were missed when that statement was made.

First, the zero ratings for the cars in question was from 2 years ago – remember that whole hue and cry about Indian-made cars not being safe enough in 2014? Since that happened, the manufacturers did reconsider their stand on safety and made some very important changes. Volkswagen India didn’t take Bajaj Auto’s statement too well and issued a press statement of their own clarifying that the Polo had revisited NCAP’s testing facilities and had been certified with a 4-star rating for the current car. The rest of the manufacturers just chose to ignore the whole thing.

The second problem with Bajaj Auto’s claim is that quadricycles and cars are tested with different rating systems – the test parameters are different too and so a 0 rating for a car may or may not be inferior to the 1-star rating for a quadricycle. The authorities at NCAP responded as well with a few ‘minor suggestions’ to make the Qute safer and get a better safety rating next time.

Anyway, what’s done is done – it’s in the past now and we sincerely hope everyone involved has learnt their lessons. For all the parties involved, here’s what we would like to end with: Volkswagen India: Good job of setting things straight. We love the Polo – especially the GT versions, but c’mon – maybe it’s not too difficult to get the safety ratings right the first time round?

Bajaj Auto: We wish you all the best for the Qute – it’s an innovative new product and we’re hoping the issue regarding its sales gets resolved in India soon enough. We hope Euro NCAP’s recommendations are implemented and the Qute becomes a world class product. As far as comparing it with other cars is concerned though, sometimes things are just better left unsaid.

(Muntaser Mirkar is one of India’s renowned automotive journalists and the Co-Founder of MotorScribes. He can be reached on Twitter: @Bullspeech)