Citroen Basalt First Car to Miss 5-Star Rating in BNCAP

Citroen’s latest offering, the Basalt Coupe SUV, recently underwent Bharat NCAP’s crash safety tests, scoring 4 stars. While a 4-star score is great, what sets this result apart is the fact that the Basalt became the first car to narrowly miss a 5-star rating in the BNCAP assessments. 

The SUV was tested for both adult and child occupant protection, receiving 26.19 points out of 32 for adults and 35.9 out of 49 for child safety. The key tests involved a Frontal Offset Deformable Barrier Test and a Side Movable Deformable Barrier Test, where the Basalt performed well in side-impact scenarios but provided only marginal protection in the frontal test, particularly for the driver's chest, pelvis, and legs. This is likely where the SUV lost points, preventing it from reaching a 5-star rating.

The Basalt does come equipped with an array of safety features that are standard across all variants, including six airbags, electronic stability control (ESC), ISOFIX child seat anchors and seatbelt reminders for all passengers. These features contributed to its strong performance in the crash tests, but the 4-star rating highlights that there is still room for improvement.

Notably, the Citroen Basalt is built on the Citroen C3-derived Common Moduar Platform (CMP), which received poor scores in Latin NCAP, so the Basalt's 4-star rating in Bharat NCAP shows significant improvement. However, it couldn’t quite achieve the stellar results of other recent test vehicles, such as Tata's lineup, which includes models like the Punch EV and Safari that secured 5-star ratings.

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