New Delhi, Jan. 24 -- Imagine buying a feisty new car with a boisterous engine that reminds you of childbirth, mated to an agile chassis that makes you want to procreate. Then imagine yourself spending most of your driving life negotiating broken tarmac, potholes and jumbo speed-bumps that threaten to launch you and your car on an unexpected journey to Planet Mars. This is neither voyeuristic nor an exaggeration, just the basics of the everyday commute for drivers on Indian roads.
While roads in Europe and America are engineered for BHP and torque, India's roads seem designed to kneecap performance cars and nut-punch thrill-seekers. Drive a low-slung coupe and you realize that vehicle geometry is not philosophy, it is bare-bones survival. The truth is that India's roads don't just influence how our cars waddle along, they prescribe how they should be (re)designed for India. Somehow, engineering elegance has been supplanted by the obsession with road-clearance.
'Traffic-Calming' Devices
The problem begins with the speed-breakers themselves. Across cities and towns, traffic-calming devices - built without standardisation, reflective markings or basic planning - have become hazards and not safety features. In Nagpur, for one, unscientific and unauthorized speed-bumps dot even national highways and cause crashes, prompting court intervention and reprimands from road authorities. These are anything but the gentle gradients explained in engineering textbooks; they are physics experiments on unsuspecting car-owners and suspensions.
The chaotic ground reality is precisely why India's idea of a 'perfect car' gravitates first to ground clearance before anything else, even if reviewers would rather talk about horsepower or luxury. A 170-180-mm ride height is now an unwritten baseline for comfort, not a luxury spec.
Clearance Comes First
Walk into car showrooms and ask buyers what matters most on local roads. Ground clearance comes up before boot space or cornering grip. This wasn't always the case, but it is axiomatic today. Compact sedans that ruled urban streets now sport ride heights that would embarrass traditional SUVs from a decade ago. This rising ride height is not vanity; it is strategy. In the desirability contest between a low-slung hatch and a 'tall-boy' design, the latter wins not because it is trendier, but because it clears the carnage our roads throw at us.
Market realities reflect the numbers. Cars with high ground clearance - SUVs, 4-meter crossovers and sedans with elevated underbodies - dominate sales charts. For instance, the VW Virtus boasts SUV-like ride height, a feature buyers laud because it lets them float over broken roads, not scrape and whine. Hatchbacks like Tata Nexon and Kia Sonet are being celebrated for clearance figures north of 200 mm, allowing drivers to traverse municipal road nightmares with impunity.
Engineering Compromise
But higher road clearance comes with compromises. Raise a car's centre of gravity and you trade road-hugging poise for floaty dynamics. A vehicle that once felt planted now feels like riding a camel, especially at speeds above 80 kmph. Suspension settings can mitigate this, but physics eventually calls the shots. That's why many Indian cars never quite feel as tight or responsive as their global cousins on European tarmac.
Carmakers are not blind to this. Modern platforms arrive in India in two personas: the taut and agile global version, and the India-tuned avatar with softer damping and a suspension calibrated for high-amplitude jolts. The engineering trade-off happens in boardrooms, not on racetracks. Sacrifice a bit of dynamic sharpness, just to ensure that the car doesn't clatter its way into the workshop after every duel with a speed-breaker.
Bumps Stupefy Studies
This isn't speculation. Research shows roads present a suspension-critical problem set in India: potholes, mixed terrains, sudden speed-breakers and unpredictable loads. These demand shock absorbers and springs that prioritise vertical travel and comfort, sacrificing composure. It is akin to designing a pair of running shoes for a sprinter who must also hop over random tree roots and broken concrete. The shoes end up with rugged mid-sole support and reduced responsiveness, because that's what keeps ankles intact. A trade-off. Just like the suspension on cars in India.
The result? Cars that feel cushioned in India feel ponderous on Germany's Autobahn. Indians who import performance cars or supercars often find the ride underwhelming. This is not because the autos lack capability, it is because they are tuned for a different environment. Across India, owners of exotic cars curse potholes and oversized speed-breakers, for these bring their machines to careful crawling speeds. Tesla's launch in India was reportedly delayed because its Model 3's ground clearance was judged insufficient for local conditions, requiring re-engineering.
Psychology of Fear
The bumpy ride has seeped into India's collective automotive psyche. The premium is paid not for speed or handling, but for the confidence it provides buyers that the car won't scrape its belly at every turn. But owners still report underbody scrapes, broken belly guards and hair-raising thuds, often turning sedan-buyers into SUV converts out of sheer self-preservation. What was once a design aesthetic has now become a psychological imperative.
And this feedback loop feeds itself. The more buyers demand high ground-clearance, the more manufacturers focus on that metric. The more manufacturers deliver it, the more buyers assume it is a necessity. Over time, in a country whose drivers have capitulated, road planners and civic engineers just shrug and build speed-bumps without markings or science. The cycle spins on.
Where Does India Go?
The answer to the question is two-fold and both sides must be tackled in parallel. One, roads must stop looking like a patchwork display. Speed-breakers need standardisation by height, spacing, reflective visibility and placement, backed by traffic engineering science and enforcement. A bump should slow traffic, not threaten mortal wounds on cars and the occupants.
Two, carmakers should invest in adaptive chassis systems and active suspension technologies that intelligently balance clearance and handling. India's road conditions are not going away anytime soon, and neither are its growing expressway network or performance-hungry drivers. Cars that can adjust in real time to potholes and smooth surfaces would be a game-changer.
Also, drivers and policymakers need to understand that making cars fit for Indian roads cannot be an excuse for engineering mediocrity; it has to be a driver of innovation. India does not need cars designed by the fear of speed-breakers; it needs cars that teach these tearjerkers a lesson.
Endgame: India's auto ecosystem can continue to design cars that bow to battered roads, or it can engineer infrastructure that lets drivers enjoy comfort and composure. The next evolution of car design should be all about restoring the joy of driving. Ground clearance matters, but confidence matters more. After all, a car that floats over a speed bump is not a triumph. But a car that eagerly embraces the open road and begs for more gas. That's progress.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.