ANCAP: Five-star safety for four Euro models

A quartet of new European models has been awarded ANCAP’s maximum five-star safety rating this week, with the recipients spanning the Audi A5, Polestar 3, Volkswagen Tiguan and Volkswagen Multivan.

But not all were tested against ANCAP’s current and most stringent test and rating criteria, with the Volkswagen Multivan achieving its five-star rating based on older 2020 to 2022 criteria, due to an earlier release date in New Zealand and Europe. If tested under today’s criteria, the Multivan would only achieve a four-star safety rating.

The Audi A5, Polestar 3 and VW Tiguan, meanwhile, were tested against current 2023 to 2025 protocols.

And it was the Polestar 3 that really impressed, scoring a whopping 94 per cent in the child occupant protection portion of testing, thanks in part to the fitment of a child presence detection system.

Strong results were also recorded for the Polestar 3 for adult occupant protection (90%) through its performance in each of the physical crash tests. Both the driver and front passenger scored ‘Good’ protection in all regions other than the driver’s lower leg (which was scored as ‘Adequate’).

Meanwhile, one point was deducted due to the omission of an advanced safety eCall feature.

Identical scores of 79% were achieved in the vulnerable road user protection and safety assist portions of testing for the Polestar 3, with ANCAP saying ‘Poor’ protection was observed during pedestrian impact testing near the windscreen pillars and along the front edge of the bonnet, while protection of the pedestrian’s legs/pelvis were mixed.

Meanwhile, the Volkswagen Tiguan achieved more consistent scoring, with 83%, 88%, 84% and 84% for the adult, child, vulnerable road user and safety assist categories.

The main area of concern in the Tiguan was the ‘submarining’ of the driver dummy during the full-width front crash test, where the dummy’s pelvis slipped beneath the lap portion of the seatbelt.

‘Adequate’ protection was also noted for the lower legs of the driver during the frontal offset test, despite very good protection in other regions for both the driver and front passenger during the same test.

“The Tiguan blends a solid crash structure with a well-rounded active safety offering – making it a dependable and practical choice for the safety-conscious family,” said ANCAP CEO, Carla Hoorweg.

Elsewhere, the Audi A5 – which replaces the A4 – achieved decent scores all round, scoring 87% for both adult and child occupant protection, with ‘Good’ levels of protection from injury across the range of destructive crash tests.

That said, only ‘Marginal’ protection was observed for the driver’s chest in the frontal and oblique side pole impacts tests.

Notably, ANCAP says the collision avoidance system fitted to the A5 showed effective performance, with the most consistent performance seen in car-to-car autonomous emergency braking (AEB) functionality.

The Audi A5’s score also covers sportier S5 variants, as well as both sedan and wagon body styles.

Finally, the Volkswagen Multivan – which recently arrived Down Under – was also awarded five-star safety, albeit against the less stringent 2020-2022 testing criteria.

This means the Multivan’s 69% vulnerable road user protection score would actually see it rated as a four-star car if tested against current criteria, since ANCAP increased the five-star threshold for vulnerable road user protection from 60% to 70% as part of an overhaul to its testing in 2023.

Elsewhere, the Multivan scored 90% for adult and 88% for child occupant protection, along with 79% for its safety assist systems, with ANCAP noting strong scores in each of the crash tests, but a mix of ‘Adequate’ and ‘Good’ in terms of the van’s collision avoidance capability.

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