Datsun Go which was launched in the country last year was more in the news for its failure in NCAP crash test than its budget price range. Datsun Go scored zero points in for adult passenger protection while scored two stars in child occupant protection segment. As a result of it NCAP asked Datsun to withdraw the model from Indian roads because even airbags won’t make much effect as car’s body shell was weak and urged company to redesign the car’s body shell.
It seems Nissan (Parent company of Datsun) is trying to change that scenario now by strengthening the structural integrity of Go hatchback. For this Nissan will be using side beams and more rigid steel with higher tensile strength of 520 megapascals which is now at 320 megapascals. Apart from rigid structure Go will be getting airbags along with anti-lock braking system.
This move seems to be the result of Go hatchback’s failure in Global NCAP crash tests but Nissan says that airbag equipped variant was planned from the beginning of the Go hatchback. The airbag is likely to be offered only on the top of the line ‘T’ variant only and airbag equipped model will be produced at the Nissan’s Oragadam plant in Chennai from April 2015.
Despite of all these speculations Datsun has neither accepted nor denied about the new airbag equipped variant. On the other hand Nissan is thinking of sending the new batch of vehicles to NCAP to review its strength once all these upgrades is done, sources said.
The General Secretary of Global NCAP Mr. David Ward commented that “We certainly welcome this move, if it is true. But we haven’t received any vehicle or communication for re-assessment. It will be good to assess modified version of Datsun Go and I am hoping that post modification, Go does pass the test. Increasingly we would want all cars to meet the UN crash regulation in India and across the world.”
Expect airbag equipped variant to be available as an optional variant and prices of this variant could be higher by 20,000-30,000 at least. In 2014 apart from Go hatchback cars like Swift, Figo and Nano also failed in the Global NCAP crash tests.
