Cupra EV lands five stars
Choice is growing for consumers in New Zealand and Australia for small and safe battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with the Cupra Born scoring a five-star ANCAP rating.
It achieved solid scores in all four key areas of safety assessment with 93 per cent for adult-occupant protection, 89 per cent for child-occupant protection, 73 per cent for vulnerable road-user protection and 80 per cent for safety assist.
The Born, pictured, joins GWM’s Ora as the only two BEVs rated by ANCAP in the small-car segment to get five stars in the 2020-22 rating criteria.
“It’s great to see another fully electric model enter our market with the maximum five-star safety rating,” says ANCAP’s chief executive, Carla Hoorweg.
“The momentum for safe and green models is growing. This rating will provide further confidence to consumers and regulators to embrace safety and environmental credentials as a non-negotiable package.”
The Nissan Leaf and Opel Corsa (NZ) also have top ratings having been tested earlier against less-stringent criteria, while four-star ratings apply to the recently rated Fiat 500e and Citroen eC4 (NZ).
Maximum scores were awarded to the Born for its protection of child occupants in two physical crash tests designed to assess the risk of injury to children seated in age-appropriate restraints.
The maximum score was also achieved for lower-leg protection for pedestrians. High scores were achieved for the protection of adult occupants across all other physical crash tests.
Active-safety performance tests presented a mix of results for the Born’s ability to prevent or mitigate the severity of a crash with pedestrians and cyclists. AEB functionality exists in forward-travel scenarios. However, its AEB system does not react to pedestrians in reverse or forward-turning scenarios, so these were not tested or scored.
Good performance was noted for AEB car-to-car functionality in forward-travel scenarios involving approaching a stationary car, a slower moving car, and both a light and heavily braking car. Tests for turning-across-path AEB scenarios involving another car showed adequate performance.