New Delhi: Nissan Motor Co. has announced that it will start offering airbags as an option for its inexpensive Datsun models in India starting next month after facing flak for rolling out cars which are non-compliant to the safety rules.
Nissan's president in India, Guillaume Sicard, said that from April, Datsun will start selling the Go hatchback and the Go+ minivan with optional driver-side air bags.
A report in The Wall Street Journal stated that Nissan's move comes after a safety watchdog complained about the safety of the Datsun cars. The Datsun Go received a zero-star safety rating in independent crash tests conducted by London-based Global NCAP.
The group in November said the car's structure collapsed during the test, and that Nissan should withdraw it from India and other markets. Other inexpensive cars sold in India, including the Maruti Suzuki Alto and Tata Motors Nano, have also previously failed NCAP crash tests.
However, Nissan at the time said that its cars have always been compliant with the Indian safety rules.
India witnesses road accidents every year. With one of the world's deadliest roads, more than 130,000 people have been killed in recent years.
Sicard also said that Nissan will be introducing the first Datsun compact sport-utility vehicle in India in the next 18 months.
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