ANCAP Awards Five-Star Safety Rating To Kia Sportage

ANCAP has announced a five-star rating for the Kia Sportage based on testing by sister organisation Euro NCAP.

The model gained “solid” scores for protection of adult and child occupants, with scores of 87 per cent achieved in the adult occupant protection and child occupant protection areas of assessment. Physical crash testing also revealed a relatively low injury risk to occupants of oncoming vehicles in a collision, with a moderate 1.37-point deduction applied for vehicle compatibility in the frontal offset test.

The agency said the Sportage is equipped with a centre airbag which provided protection against lateral movement of the driver and prevented occupant-to-occupant interaction in the side impact test. Marginal levels of protection were observed for the chest of the driver in the full width frontal test and oblique pole test.

According to ANCAP, the Sportage performed well in most tests of its autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system in forward-travel scenarios when interacting with pedestrians and cyclists. Mixed results were recorded in tests of its AEB system when reacting to other vehicles, with poorer performance at test speeds above 60 km/h leading to an overall marginal assessment. Tests of the lane support system showed good performance across most scenarios.

ANCAP said the AEB system fitted to some Sportage variants does not react to pedestrians in reverse or turning scenarios, and these tests were therefore not conducted or scored. Australian-supplied Sportages are, however, fitted as standard with AEB Junction Assist, which can prevent or minimise the severity of a crash when turning across the path of another vehicle, but this functionality was not fitted to the test vehicle assessed in Europe, so points were not awarded in this part of the assessment. According to ANCAP, it is likely that locally supplied models would achieve a slightly higher safety assist score with this added functionality.

“The new Kia Sportage has already proven to be a popular choice for fleets and families, and Kia is to be congratulated for achieving another five-star safety rating against ANCAP’s 2020-2022 protocols,” said ANCAP Chief Executive Officer Carla Hoorweg.