ANCAP has announced that the Isuzu D-Max utility and Toyota Yaris hatchback have been tested under its expanded 2020 safety testing criteria, with both receiving the maximum five-star safety rating.
“Our 2020 requirements again set the bar higher to promote further vehicle safety improvements and address some of the ongoing challenges on our roads,” said Rhianne Robson, Director – Communications & Advocacy at ANCAP.
ANCAP says the D-Max, which is one of the first vehicles with the standard inclusion of a front-row centre airbag between the seats, scored well across all key areas of assessment. The ute also receives autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection, multi-collision braking and active lane-keeping support as standard.
The testing report said the protection offered to adult occupants in the side impact and oblique pole tests was good, achieving full points including for occupant-to-occupant head protection with the new centre airbag. The D-Max also received full points for the protection of child occupants in the frontal offset and side impact scenarios. ANCAP says all 20 variants in the D-Max range – single cab, space cab, crew cab, and cab chassis – provided the same level of safety features and technologies as standard.
“The D-Max rating has been highly anticipated by fleet and private buyers, and re-establishes the safety benchmark for the competitive ute segment where the introduction of safety features has tended to lag that of passenger cars and SUVs,” said Robson.
In the light car segment, the new Toyota Yaris also performed well in a test by Euro NCAP which was approved by ANCAP. It achieved full points for the protection of adult occupants in both the side impact and oblique pole tests, and for the protection of child occupants in the side impact scenario. The Yaris also has airbag protection between the front seats, being equipped with standard dual front-centre airbags.
According to ANCAP, its upgraded frontal offset (mobile progressive deformable barrier) test presents new challenges for vehicles by involving a moving barrier which resembles an oncoming vehicle. In this test, protection of the Toyota Yaris driver’s chest and legs was assessed as marginal, while for the Isuzu D-Max the chest and left femur of the driver were similarly assessed as marginal. All other critical body regions for occupants of the Yaris and D-Max were rated as either good or adequate.
ANCAP says the upgraded frontal offset test also evaluates a vehicle’s ability to mitigate the risk of serious injury to occupants in the opposing vehicle, known as ‘vehicle compatibility’. In this test, the modest weight and “benign” front structure of the Toyota Yaris did not pose a high risk to the occupants of the oncoming vehicle. In contrast, the front structure of the larger, heavier Isuzu D-Max presented a higher risk to the occupants of an oncoming vehicle in this test, and a penalty was applied.
ANCAP says the expanded range of automatic emergency braking (AEB) test scenarios from 2020 encourages the early fitment of more sophisticated systems which can intervene in more complex scenarios, such as turning across the path of another vehicle, and avoiding pedestrian accidents when turning into an adjacent street.
“The Yaris introduces some of the most sophisticated passive and active safety systems, including dual centre airbags and AEB with turn assistance, which are features that are being seen for the first time in 2020,” said Robson. “While COVID-19 has resulted in a slight delay to testing and release of our first 2020 ratings, these ratings re-establish market and consumer expectations for five stars regardless of market segment or intended use.
“With the new challenges set by ANCAP from 2020, it is extremely pleasing to see manufacturers achieve good results against these increasing standards, and take responsibility by prioritising safety to provide their customers with the safest vehicles they can.”
According to ANCAP, both the Isuzu D-Max and Toyota Yaris have also supplied ISO compliant rescue sheets – a new requirement for 2020 test protocols – to assist with first responder response time in the event of a crash.