Euro NCAP says the new Hyundai Kona’s safety ‘lags behind its competitors’, with Hyundai focussing on making the car larger with a bigger interior to face off the competition, but that this shouldn't come at the expense of poorer safety.
The safety body says: ‘Hyundai shouldn’t assume that its customers are content with a level of safety that isn’t up to its rivals.’
– our professional reviews cover all all key areas that make a great car, including safety, so you get a car that won’t let you down.Hyundai Kona (compact SUV, from £25,725**)
Euro NCAP score: 4/5
This small SUV is available as a petrol, full hybrid or EV, and Euro NCAP’s safety rating applies to all models.
The car is very lucky to have narrowly achieved four stars out of five – at Which?, we automatically make any car a Don't Buy if it gets three stars or fewer from Euro NCAP.
In Euro NCAP’s crash test, the safety body says Hyundai’s new interior is partly to blame, with structures on the dashboard ‘posing a risk to injury’ in the event of a collision.
In one test that involved crashing the car into a wide rigid barrier, the dummy driver slipped under the lap portion of the safety belt, so NCAP rated protection of the knees and femur as ‘poor’. It also rated the driver’s chest protection as ‘weak’.
It gave ‘marginal’ ratings in quite a number of other areas as well, including the neck of a passenger in the rear seat from whiplash from a rear impact, in the front impact test for the driver’s chest and legs and the front passenger’s upper legs, and 'marginal' in a side impact when the driver travels across the car.
That said, in all other side-impact tests, including the highly demanding tests where the car is hit by a rigid pole on one side, the car achieved the top 'good' rating.
The Kona is also not always friendly to vulnerable road users in the event of a collision. For pedestrians and cyclists, Euro NCAP said ‘protection of the pelvis is almost completely poor, and protection of the femur (upper leg) largely poor or marginal.’
Euro NCAP also gave a ‘poor’ rating to the car’s autonomous emergency braking system for failing to kick in adequately if the car is turning across the path of an oncoming cyclist. It also rated as 'poor' in NCAP's ‘dooring’ test due to the car failing to prevent or warn against door opening if a cyclist is approaching from behind.
The car's safety assistance systems generally performed well, with it achieving the top 'good' rating in many aspects including helping keep you lane if you start drifting out on a motorway, and the car's driver monitoring system is able to detect a fair range of types of driver distractions that could risk an accident, as well as driver fatigue.
Overall, Euro NCAP says the Kona’s test performance is ‘substandard’ and ‘disappointing’, but it does marginally well enough to avoid a damning verdict.
Honda ZR-V (small SUV, from £38,684*)
Euro NCAP score: 4/5
They may have the same rating overall, but they're at opposite ends of the four star category, with the Honda ZR-V small SUV just missing out on a full five stars out of five from Euro NCAP.
In the crash tests, the ZR-V's only ‘poor’ rating was in the side-impact test, where the heads of the driver and front passenger hit each other despite the airbag deploying between them. This also happened on several other cars in this month's Euro NCAP tests, including the five-star rated Mercedes, Smart and BYD Tang models (see below), as well as the VinFast VF8.
What pushed the ZR-V down fractionally further in the crash tests was two ‘marginal’ ratings for the driver’s chest, plus the back passenger’s chest, in the front impact crashes into a deformable and wide rigid barrier respectively.
The car held up well for protecting children and vulnerable road users in most situations, and for its safety assistance systems, although the car has no driver status monitoring system (so doesn't detect whether the driver is becoming drowsy).
Could this brand new five-seat SUV be the perfect pick for families? Find out the definitive verdict of our expert testers in our First Drive .BMW 5-series (large saloon, from £51,000**)
Euro NCAP score: 5/5
It offers top-grade ‘good’ protection in most areas in Euro NCAP’s crash tests, only dropping to ‘marginal’ once for the driver’s chest in the very demanding side pole impact test.
The 5-series also has what's called an active bonnet, which helps protect vulnerable road users. If it detects someone has been struck, actuators lift the bonnet to help avoid the person striking the stiff components underneath.
The only slight critique the safety body gave was for the car’s driver monitoring system, which managed to detect only driver drowsiness, not other signs (such as a distracted driver) that could lead to a crash.
While we await the latest 5-series results back from our expert lab, see if the previous-generation model is worth a look in our . - discover the EVs that are safe, reliable and practicalVolkswagen ID.7 (large SUV coupé, from £55,570**)
Euro NCAP score: 5/5
In fact it gets an impressive 95% score from Euro NCAP for protecting adults in the car (one of its assessment areas), with no significant points of concern in its crash tests.
Like the BMW, the ID.7 also has an active bonnet to protect pedestrians and other vulnerable road users in collisions, although when reversing, its autonomous emergency braking system failed to detect reversing into a pedestrian.
Nevertheless, Euro NCAP’s tests give the ID.7 one of the year’s best overall scores for car safety.
Our review of the brand new ID.7 is coming soon, but see how the ID series is faring so far in our comprehensive tests with Volkswagen's smaller electric SUV coupé in our .Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV (large SUV, from £90,560**)
Euro NCAP score: 5/5
Euro NCAP points out that there’s certainly a consumer trend towards hefty, large SUVs, with eight of the 11 new cars it’s tested this month weighing more than two tonnes – the heavier the car, the more challenging to keep those the car crashes into safe in a collision.
That said, Mercedes have done a good job with the all-electric EQE SUV, with the car getting high scores in all four of Euro NCAP's testing areas, from adult and child in-car safety, to vulnerable road users and the car's safety assistance systems. The EQE SUV, like the BMW and ID.7 (plus the Kia, Smart and VinFast models below), is able to detect if opening a door when a cyclist is approaching from behind.
The only significant issue with the EQE SUV in fact was in the crash tests, where the heads of the driver and front passenger collided when the car was struck from the side.
The SUV version isn't yet back from our lab, but see if the saloon version suggests promise in our .Kia EV9 (large SUV, from £64,995**)
Euro NCAP score: 5/5
The all-electric Kia EV9 is Kia’s first three-row electric vehicle aimed at families who need plenty of space. It’s certainly very large, but Euro NCAP nevertheless gives it a thumbs up, praising its good range of child safety equipment and its overall performance in its tests.
Like the ID.7, EQE SUV and VinFast VF8 (below), the EV9 has a ‘child presence detection’ system that recognises when a child or infant has been left in the car.
Its safety assistance systems scored particularly well, with its driver monitoring system able to detect a broad range of issues that could help avoid an accident, including fatigue from drowsiness to microsleep and full sleep, as well as a host of driver distractions taking your attention away from the road.
This looks like it could be the ideal car for large families, if safety is anything to go by. We haven't yet lab-tested the EV9, but see how Kia’s electric cars and other models are faring so far by heading over to our expert .Smart #3 (compact SUV coupé, from £32,950**)
Euro NCAP score: 5/5
The Smart #3 is the brand’s second all-electric SUV, and while still small, it’s much larger than previous cars from Smart.
It achieves the full five stars, though with some room for further improvement.
Like many cars Euro NCAP's tested this month, the driver and front passenger dummy’s heads made contact through the middle airbag in the side-impact crash test, leading to a ‘poor’ rating.
In addition, in the same side-impact test without a front seat passenger, the driver’s travel across to the other seat of the car led to a ‘marginal’ rating. Other than these two issues, the crash test results were overall generally rated good or adequate.
The car also doesn’t have a child presence detection system in case a child is left in the car.
We’ll be sending the Smart #3 through our demanding lab tests soon. In the meantime, see how the Smart brand is faring up in our tests by checking out our .VinFast VF8 (large SUV, from approx. £45,452**)
Euro NCAP score: 4/5
This is the first time Euro NCAP has tested a car from Vietnam – a country that is becoming a go-to destination for manufacturers looking to diversify away from an over-reliance on China (where many cars including the Smart #3 are made).
The VinFast VF8 five-seater SUV is the brand’s first European model. UK pricing hasn’t yet been announced, but it costs €52,990 (around £45,452) in Germany.
For the brand’s first outing in Euro NCAP’s assessments, it’s achieved a commendable four stars out of five, easily outscoring the Hyundai Kona in most test areas, including for protecting vulnerable road users and its safety assistance technology.
It was mainly let down by the robustness of its safety belts – for example, it allowed the driver to travel quite far across the vehicle to the passenger seat in the event of a side impact. Some airbags also failed to deploy correctly in Euro NCAP’s tests, with a side curtain airbag getting trapped in the interior trim, and the driver knee airbag deploying in a way that didn’t protect the leg and pelvis region adequately.
We haven’t yet tested the VF8, but check out one of its rivals with our .Chinese-brand cars also crash tested
China got on the electric car bandwagon early, and a whole slew of Chinese brands are trying to gain a foothold in Europe. The latest models are certainly safe according to Euro NCAP’s tests, with models from startup Xpeng and vehicle giant BYD, which has been making electric cars for nearly a decade and is one of the world’s largest battery producers, tested this month:
Xpeng G9Euro NCAP score: BYD TANGEuro NCAP score: BYD SEAL-UEuro NCAP score: To see all our car recommendations across the market, see our .Drive smarter and cut costs using our expert advice.source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/revealed-the-family-cars-that-get-top-marks-in-euro-ncap-crash-tests-and-those-that-miss-out-aW0wp4P7CIaf