A Battle Of The Safest Compact SUV Between The Germans And Koreans

Two have scored five stars in both adult and child safety while the rest have had a forgetful performance

Global NCAP conducts crash tests of cars to show their capability to keep passengers safe in case of an accident. It has recently upgraded its assessment requirements by including more tests such as side impact and the requirement of electronic stability control (ESC) as standard. According to the test protocols, a car is crash-tested into a frontal offset barrier at a speed of 64kmph, a side impact at 50kmph, and a side pole impact at 29kmph. After these tests are done, its performance is assessed for the rating.

With the ratings of the Skoda Kushaq-Volkswagen Taigun coming in recently, we decided to compare their results with those of two popular SUVs from their segment, the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos. Just like all the other cars, their base variants have been taken into consideration. Here are our observations:

Overall Scores

Note: Before proceeding, it’s important to note that the Creta and Seltos were crash-tested before the updated protocols of Global NCAP came into effect and hence there are some differences in their test results.

The difference between the Germans and Koreans in terms of their performance in the crash tests is obvious: it’s the former duo which leads the way with five-star ratings for both adult and child occupant protection. On the other hand, the Creta and Seltos, have secured three stars each in adult occupant protection and three and two stars respectively in child occupant protection.

All four SUVs mentioned here get dual front airbags, ABS with EBD, and rear parking sensors as standard. It’s only the German duo among the lot that comes with ESC as standard too.

ADULT OCCUPANT PROTECTION

Skoda Kushaq/VW Taigun result

While both the Taigun and Kushaq have secured 29.64 out of 34 points in adult occupant protection, the Creta managed to score 8 whereas the Seltos got 8.03 (out of 17 points for both the SUVs). This helped the German SUVs achieve a five-star rating while the Koreans got three stars in adult occupant protection assessment.

Frontal Impact- Both the German models demonstrated good to adequate protection for adult occupants, and marginal to good protection in the side impact scenarios. 

In the case of the Korean duo, the Hyundai Creta offered adequate protection to the driver’s head but good protection to the passenger’s head and driver and passenger’s neck region. In the Seltos’s case, the head protection was considered ‘adequate’ as both the occupants bottomed out the airbags. The neck protection was ‘good’ for both the front adult passengers. The chest protection was ‘good’ for the co-driver and ‘marginal’ for the driver.

Side Impact, Side Pole Impact And ESC (Only for the Kushaq and Taigun)- Under the newly introduced side impact test, protection to the head, abdomen and pelvis was cited to be ‘good’ while the cover for chest was deemed ‘marginal’. The result also mentioned that the fitment of the curtain airbags for the side impact pole test was as per the required protocols. Here, the head and pelvis got ‘good’ protection from the curtain airbag while ‘adequate’ cover was offered to the abdomen. Chest protection was rated as ‘marginal’. The ESC in both SUVs met the requirements of the relevant test.

CHILD OCCUPANT PROTECTION

The Taigun and Kushaq achieved five stars in child occupant safety as well, with their scoresheet reading 42 out of 49 points (a first for cars tested by Global NCAP). That said, the Korean duo only got 28.29 and 15 points (Creta and Seltos, respectively) out of 49 in child safety.

Both the three-year old and 18-month old were sat in child seats facing rearwards using the anchorages in the outer rear seats. The Skoda-VW SUVs offered full protection in both front and side impact crash tests. In terms of the Korean duo’s performance, the three-year-old dummy passenger in a forward-facing seat got ‘limited protection’ for the head and neck. An 18-month-old dummy passenger in a rearward-facing seat received acceptable protection.

Bodyshell Integrity

The last and perhaps most significant aspect of the GNCAP crash test is the integrity of the bodyshell itself. Here, the results tilt in favour of the Kushaq and Taigun as their bodyshell was rated ‘stable’ and capable of withstanding further loadings whereas that of the Creta-Seltos was deemed ‘unstable’ in the front offset crash test.

How Things Stand In The End

Of the four SUVs mentioned above, it’s clear that the Taigun-Kushaq duo is the clear winner in the crash-test performance, in both adult and child occupant protection. It’s also worth noting that these German cars have fared well in the updated and more stringent Global NCAP assessments. The Korean SUVs, on the other hand, performed below par in the older test protocols, thereby underperforming to score above three stars each in adult and child safety.

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