Nitin Gadkari urges automakers to be quantity centric, not cost centric

The Indian automotive market has seen a shift towards more safety centric cars in the past few years. This change can be attributed to Indian made cars like Tata Altroz, Tata Nexon and Mahindra XUV300 scoring high in NCAP crash tests. This trend was carried forward with new Indian cars like the Mahindra XUV700 and Tata Punch scoring high in NCAP crash tests. There has been a wave on social media and online forums about safety ratings of a car. The impact of this has been such that the Indian government and car manufacturers in India have started considering safety among their top priorities.

The Indian government is trying to take all necessary steps to make cars safer. The government has announced setting up an Indian crash test centre where cars can be tested at par with global standards. The government recently also announced that six airbags will be made mandatory by October 2022. Indian Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari has been at the forefront of these changes.

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) recently conducted its 62nd annual session, where concerns over the tragic death of former Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry in a road accident were raised. Nitin Gadkari was in attendance and he urged auto manufacturers in India to adopt a quality centric and not a cost centric approach to increase the safety of vehicles and reduce road fatalities in India.

Addressing the SIAM’s 62nd annual session Indian Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari said, “I tell my friends in the automobile sector that you should be quality centric, not cost centric. because choices of people are changing. Automobile manufacturers must adopt new technology to reduce costs, provide more comfort to customers, reduce imports and increase exports".

He also said that, "yesterday, I had a meeting with Steel Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. Again both of us are going to meet the finance minister and request her to give GST concession for new purchase of vehicles against scrapping of old ones".

(With PTI inputs)