Does a 5-star Bharat NCAP rating cover your EV's battery?

Short answer: no. A Bharat NCAP star rating is a crash test result for the occupants. The battery's fire safety comes from a separate, mandatory homologation standard, AIS-038 Rev 2 for M and N category vehicles, which has been in force since 1 October 2022 and covers battery pack design, the onboard charger and thermal propagation after an internal cell short circuit, as Business Today reported when the norms were notified. Every electric car sold here has to clear that. It is a floor, not a selling point, and no EV gets stars for it.

What the stars actually measure

Bharat NCAP publishes two scores per car. Adult Occupant Protection is out of 32 points, Child Occupant Protection is out of 49, and a third pillar covers safety assist fitment. The official site lists the crash tests as a 64 kph frontal offset, a 50 kph side impact and a 29 kph side pole impact. Autocar Professional reported at the start of the regime that the base variant is the one tested, that the frontal test is run faster than the 56 kph homologation requirement, and that a test costs about ₹60 lakh.

Scores matter more than the badge. Mahindra's XEV 9e took 32 out of 32 for adult protection and 45 out of 49 for child protection, with the BE 6 at 31.97 and the same 45 out of 49, per Mahindra's January 2025 release. Bharat NCAP's own listing shows the Punch.ev at 31.09 out of 32 and 45.00 out of 49. All of them are 5-star cars. The gap between them is in the detail, not the stars.

What the badge does not tell you

Nothing in the current rating speaks to what happens to the pack in a crash, how quickly a thermal event is flagged, or how a rescue team isolates the high voltage system. That changes with the next protocol. The government's draft for Bharat NCAP 2.0, applicable from 1 October 2027, moves to a 100-point structure: 55 points for crash protection, 20 for vulnerable road user protection, 10 for safe driving, 10 for accident avoidance and 5 for post-crash safety. Electronic stability control and curtain airbags become mandatory to be rated at all, autonomous emergency braking stays optional, and five crash tests replace three, including a 50 kph full-width frontal and a 50 kph rear impact. Five stars will need 70 points from 2027 to 2029 and 80 points from 2029 to 2031.

The trade-off for a buyer in 2026 is simple. An EV wearing 5 stars today earned them under rules that never scored pedestrian safety, rear impact or post-crash behaviour. That badge stays on the brochure. A 2028 5-star car will have cleared a harder bar. The two are not comparable, and a seller will not make the distinction for you.

How to use this in the showroom

Ask for the number, not the star count, and ask for both numbers if you carry a child seat, because adult and child scores move independently. Check that the variant you are signing for has the airbag and ESC hardware of the base car that was tested, since Bharat NCAP rates the model as tested, not every trim. Treat a rating as silent on battery life and battery fire risk, and read the warranty separately. Tata, for instance, lists a lifetime high voltage battery warranty on the Harrier.ev, which it defines as 15 years from first registration for private owners under fair usage, on a car that starts at ₹21.79 lakh ex-showroom. That document, not the crash star, is what you fall back on if the pack fails.

Sources

• Mahindra BE 6, XEV 9e Create History with Highest Ever 5-star Bharat-NCAP Safety Rating
• Bharat NCAP official site: ratings and test speeds
• Govt proposes Bharat NCAP 2.0 with wider crash tests and tougher ratings, Autocar India
• Bharat NCAP crash safety regime for new cars kicks off in India, Autocar Professional
• Tata Harrier.ev overview, Tata Motors
• EV players laud new battery safety norms, Business Today