Of seven new cars tested for safety by Euro NCAP, five star winners included two new crossover SUVs, the Alfa Romeo Tonale and Kia Sportage and one full electric car, the Cupra Born. The Mercedes-Benz T-Class and Citan Tourer also qualified for five stars while Toyota’s new Aygo X supermini and BMW’s i4 BEV earned four stars.
The Tonale, the first completely new model from Alfa Romeo since the 2016 Stelvio, met all requirements for a five star rating, despite lacking centre airbags and performing well in frontal crashes.
“Overall, the SUV performs well in car to car and car to vulnerable road user crash avoidance tests and it offers an Attention Assist system that can detect driver drowsiness,”Euro NCAP noted in a statement. The fully redesigned Kia Sportage again shares a platform with parent Hyundai Motor’s five star Hyundai Tucson tested last year. It is equally well equipped and scored very similarly in safety tests, earning five stars as well.
The same was said of the [Seat] Cupra Born, VW group’s sportier alternative to the ID.3.
In the van-based MPV segment, the Mercedes-Benz Citan Tourer and T-Class both share the platform of the Renault Kangoo on which they are based but were, across the board, better equipped with a new centre airbag for additional far side impact protection and high performing active safety features.
The Toyota Aygo X is the latest new arrival in the highly competitive supermini segment and the small crossover city car did well overall but forgoes some more advanced safety systems, resulting only in a four star rating.
BMW’s battery electric compact executive i4 showe3d that luxury does not always means better safety performance. Equipped with a similar sensor set to the 3 Series tested in 2019, the new sedan missed out on some critical crash avoidance points and achieved just a four star rating.