ANCAP has released a five-star safety rating for the Cupra Born electric vehicle, which was introduced to Australia in March 2023. The rating applies to all variants.
ADULT OCCUPANT PROTECTION
ANCAP said the passenger compartment of the Born remained stable in the frontal offset (MPDB) test. Dummy readings indicated adequate protection of the driver’s lower legs and front passenger dummy’s chest. Protection was good for all other critical body regions for the driver and front passenger.
The front structure presented a moderate risk to occupants of an oncoming vehicle in the MPDB test (which evaluates vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility), with a 1.18-point penalty applied.
In the full width frontal test, protection of the driver dummy was good for all critical body areas while protection was adequate for the chest of the rear passenger. Good protection was offered for all other critical body regions for both the driver and rear passenger. In the side impact test, protection offered to all critical body regions of the driver was good.
In the oblique pole test, chest protection was adequate, with good protection of all other critical body areas.
The Born is equipped with a centre airbag to protect against occupant-to-occupant interaction in side impacts and it provided good protection for the head of both front seat occupants.
Prevention of excursion (movement towards the other side of the vehicle) in the far side impact tests was assessed as marginal for both the vehicle-to-vehicle impact scenario and the vehicle-to-pole scenario.
CHILD OCCUPANT PROTECTION
In the frontal offset and side impact tests, protection of the 10 year and six-year dummies was good, with maximum points being scored in these tests.
The Born is fitted with lower ISOFix anchorages on the rear outboard seats and top tether anchorages for all rear seating positions.
Installation of typical child restraints available in Australia showed most child restraints could be accommodated in most rear seating positions, though one of the selected booster seats could not be correctly installed in the centre rear position.
ANCAP’s assessment was conducted on a five-seat vehicle, but these results are also applicable for vehicles with four seats. All selected child restraints can be accommodated in all rear seating positions of the four-seat variant.
VULNERABLE ROAD USER PROTECTION
The bonnet provided predominantly good or adequate protection to the head of a struck pedestrian, while marginal and poor results were recorded at the rear of the bonnet, at the base of the windscreen, and on the stiff windscreen pillars.
Protection of the pelvis area was good or adequate, while the bumper showed good results for lower leg impacts.
The autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system is capable of detecting and reacting to pedestrians and cyclists. It offered adequate performance in pedestrian and cyclist test cases with collisions avoided or mitigated in most scenarios, but it does not react to vulnerable road users in reverse (AEB back over) or turning scenarios, so these tests were not conducted.
SAFETY ASSIST
In addition to the AEB system, which is capable of functioning at highway speeds, the Born is fitted with a lane support system with lane keep assist and emergency lane keeping functionality, as well as blind spot monitoring.
Tests of the AEB (car-to-car) system showed good performance with collisions avoided or mitigated in most scenarios, and adequate performance was recorded for AEB junction assist scenarios where the test vehicle can autonomously brake to avoid crashes when turning across the path of an oncoming vehicle.
Tests of the lane support system functionality showed good performance, including in several of the more critical emergency lane keeping test scenarios.
A manually set speed assistance system is standard equipment but a speed limit information function is not available.
A seatbelt reminder system with occupancy detection is fitted to all seating positions, while a driver drowsiness monitor system is fitted as standard.