The new Toyota Yaris “sets the benchmark for small family car safety” says Euro NCAP as the safety organisation belatedly reveals its first test results of 2020.
The Yaris gains a full five-star rating.
Delayed due to the COVID pandemic, the latest results are also the first to use an entirely new frontal offset crash test.
It replaces the one Euro NCAP has used since its inception in 1997.
Far-side impacts are also newly being assessed in 2020, so Euro NCAP can assess the protection cars offer their occupants, as well as the risks posed by the car they crash into.
“This has been a tough year for all concerned,” acknowledged Euro NCAP secretary general Michiel van Ratingen.
“We have had to adapt quickly to new working practices, and it is pleasing that the first car rated this year should have gone so far to address the safety issues that are emerging as top priorities.”
What is the new far-side impact test?
The Euro NCAP far-side impact test is designed to measure an occupant’s sideways movement towards the opposite side of the vehicle.
The Toyota Yaris helps mitigate this with the introduction of centre airbags, that reduce contact between occupants and “offer compartmentalised protection”.
Safety organisation Thatcham Research’s Mathew Avery called the centre airbags “a genuinely encouraging development for crash safety”.
Meanwhile, the new mobile progressive deformable barrier (MPDB) helps the organisation assess the danger that occupants can present to one another during a collision, by colliding into each other.
“The Yaris, in general, does well, its small size and benign front end making it one of the less aggressive crash partners on the road.”
Thatcham’s Mr Avery added: “With the Yaris, Toyota has shown that cars of any size or category can meet the new benchmark set by the world’s most exacting safety testing programme.”
The new frontal offset test is expected to be less easy for larger, heavier SUVs to pass…
Thatcham Research also praised Toyota’s comprehensive standard-fit Safety Sense, which can now stop the vehicle during turning to avoid a head-on collision with oncoming traffic.
Also tested in the latest round of results were the Audi e-tron Sportback and Renault Clio E-Tech Hybrid, both of which carried over the five-star ratings of their core models.
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