Evolving from the existing levels of Rs. 2,400-2,500 crore, India's airbag industry is expected to boost and become a Rs. 6,000-7,000 crore sector over the next four years, said ICRA.

The anticipated regulatory push to implement six airbags in passenger vehicles sold in the country is the key facilitator for this 2.5-3-times growth by FY2027 in the revenues of airbag suppliers in India, reported Autocar Professional.

This proposed regulation was deferred by 12 months for all new passenger vehicle models, while this mandate was to be implemented from October 2022

It was primarily on account of the lack of capacity at airbag manufacturers to supply to the OEM demand of almost 18 million airbags.

The government will now likely issue a new notification proposing mandatory fitment of six airbags in passenger vehicles from October 2023.

While a dual-front airbag mandate for all new passenger vehicles was implemented in January 2022, with a passenger vehicle market size of about 3-million units in FY2022, a six-airbag mandate will multiply the industry’s requirement of airbags from the existing six million units to 18 million units by end-2023.

According to the ICRA study, there is immense scope for localization and development of the Tier-II vendor ecosystem in this space and increasing volumes could make this economically viable.