These are some of the safest new cars on sale in Europe, according to Euro NCAP.
Euro NCAP revealed the results of their latest crash test on the Audi A3 Sportback, Seat Leon, Kia Sorento, new Land Rover Defender, Honda E, and Hyundai i10. The group also refreshed its focus on “vehicle compatibility”, implying the importance of the tested vehicle’s behavior when in a crash with another smaller vehicle.
To do so, the Euro NCAP used a Mobile Progressive Deformable Barrier (MPDB) in the frontal tests. The Audi A3 Sportback and the Seat Leon made it past this new test with distinction — particularly the Leon due to its more compatible front end, compared to the sharper-edged Audi’s front fascia. Also, it was expected for the Audi and Seat vehicles to clear the test since both are based on Volkswagen’s MQB, which got top ratings by the Euro NCAP when crash testing the Volkswagen Golf.
Coming to the Land Rover Defender, the SUV did well due to new safety features such as automatic emergency braking and lane-keep assist. However, it didn’t do as well in the new front crash test. Isuzu’s big pick-up, the D-Max surprisingly received a 5-star rating, due to safety features such as a center airbag to protect occupants from colliding against each other during a side impact. This, along with other driver-assisting features also helped with adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, and pedestrian safety tests. However, the D-Max’s heavy front end was said to be “aggressive” in the frontal collision test.
Kia’s new Sorento bagged 5 stars too. It got really high scores in the adult, passenger, child and pedestrian protection tests, thanks to the Advanced High Strength Steel body panels and seven airbags including a new center airbag, a first in its class. The Sorento also features Kia’s usual safety tech such as Forward Collision-Avoidance assist, Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance assist, etc.
Coming to those that didn’t do that well, Honda’s new EV, the Honda E fell short of 5-stars, settling for four. This can be a bit of a concern considering the fact that the Honda E is not the class leader when it comes to range, and is also not the cheapest of electric superminis. It misses on safety tech featured on the Honda Jazz, and did not fare well in pedestrian safety tests as it failed to detect some of the obstacles.
Hyundai’s i10 supermini was the least favored vehicle in the tests, with NCAP pointing out that some of the driver’s crucial body features were not fully protected by the seatbelts during a full-width frontal crash and the car’s AEB feature was much restrained compared to its competition.
