The new Mercedes-Benz A-Class, Mazda 6 and Lexus ES300h have all been awarded a five-star safety rating from independent crash tester ANCAP.
The Mercedes-Benz A-Class scored well achieving 96 per cent for Adult Occupant Protection, 92 per cent for Vulnerable Road User Protection and 91 per cent for Child Occupant Protection whilst the Safety Assist score was a lot lower at 73 per cent.
ANCAP Chief Executive, James Goodwin, said, “The new A-Class offers excellent all-round safety performance.”
“Side chest-protecting airbags also extend to the rear seats as a standard feature on Australasian models, where it is offered as an option to European consumers,” he said.
Scoring slightly lower was the Mazda 6 achieving 95 per cent for Adult Occupant Protection and 91 per cent for Child Occupant Protection with Safety Assist and Vulnerable Road User Protection coming in at 73 and 66 per cent respectively.
“The Mazda 6 performed well for its protection of adult and child occupants however some concerns were noted for smaller occupants seated in the rear, where the pelvis of the dummy slipped beneath the lap section of the seatbelt in the full width test – known as submarining – and a penalty was applied,” said Mr Goodwin.
Rounding out the graduates was the Lexus ES300h which achieved 91 per cent for Adult Occupant Protection, 90 per cent for Vulnerable Road User Protection, slightly lower Child Occupant Protection coming in at 86 per cent and Safety Assist at 76 per cent.
Mr Goodwin also added, “The autonomous emergency braking capability of the Lexus ES300h was its standout feature with full points scored for its ability to detect and avoid pedestrians in all test scenarios at day and night. Strong performance was also recorded for its cyclist-detection capability.”
The Lexus ES300h also received a penalty for the rear occupant submarining in the full-width frontal test.
The five-star ANCAP safety rating applies to all variants of the Mercedes-Benz A-Class built from August onwards, Mazda 6’s built from June onwards and Lexus ES300h’s built from September onwards.
European counterpart Euro NCAP has also completed testing of the new Hyundai Nexo. Test and demonstration production vehicles due to arrive in Australia in the first half of next year before an official launch when suitable hydrogen refuelling infrastructure is available.
A five-star rating was awarded to the Nexo making it the first fuel cell electric vehicle to achieve a maximum star rating in Euro NCAP’s safety test.
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