'Ioniq 5 and Sportage Rank 1st in Vehicle Safety Evaluation... Volkswagen Rated "Poor"'

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Korea Transportation Safety Authority Joint Investigation
Ioniq 5 and Sportage Excel in Collision Safety
Volkswagen Jetta and Tiguan Safety Ratings Inadequate
Head Injury Criteria Exceeded... Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport "Defect Investigation"

(Data provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

In this year's vehicle safety evaluation, Hyundai's 'Ioniq 5' (electric vehicle category) and Kia's 'Sportage' (internal combustion engine vehicle category) each took first place.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 21st that, based on the evaluation of 11 vehicle models targeted in the '2021 Vehicle Safety Evaluation (KNCAP)' conducted with the Korea Transportation Safety Authority's Vehicle Safety Research Institute, Hyundai Ioniq 5 ranked first in the electric vehicle category, and Kia Sportage ranked first in the internal combustion engine vehicle category.

The vehicle safety evaluation is a government-led program that conducts tests at levels higher than the legal standards such as vehicle crash criteria and publicly discloses the results to encourage improvements in vehicle safety.

The evaluation assesses three main areas: 'Crash Safety,' which measures how well occupants are protected in a collision; 'Pedestrian Safety,' which measures how well pedestrians impacted by the vehicle are protected; and 'Accident Prevention Safety,' which evaluates advanced systems that prevent accidents in advance, rating vehicles from 1 to 5 stars.

This year, the evaluation was expanded for the first time to include electric vehicles, selecting 4 models, while 7 internal combustion engine vehicles were selected, totaling 11 models evaluated.

The top vehicles, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia Sportage, received high scores in crash safety and accident prevention safety.

The best vehicle in the electric vehicle category was Hyundai Ioniq 5 (overall grade 1, 92.1 points), and the excellent vehicle was Kia EV6 (overall grade 1, 91.9 points). Both vehicles scored and rated over 90% in crash safety and accident prevention safety.

The best vehicle in the internal combustion engine category was Kia Sportage (overall grade 1, 94.1 points), and the excellent vehicle was Kia K8 (overall grade 1, 93.4 points).

Both vehicles scored and rated over 90% in crash safety and accident prevention safety, and recorded satisfactory ratings in pedestrian safety.

(Data provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

Volkswagen's Jetta and Tiguan showed the poorest results.

The Volkswagen Jetta failed to meet the injury criteria in a collision. Unlike other models, it was not equipped with advanced safety devices, resulting in poor accident prevention safety ratings and scores (lowest in the category, around 30%).

In a fixed wall frontal collision, the Volkswagen Jetta exceeded the injury criteria for the head on the front passenger seat and exceeded the criteria for head and chest injuries in the rear seats.

The Volkswagen Tiguan also showed poor crash safety scores similar to the Jetta, as the injury criteria for rear seat occupants were not met in a collision.

Both models received low scores due to the capping system applied in crash tests, which assigns a final score of zero if any injury criterion is exceeded in any test item.

While meeting the minimum requirements for vehicle sales, they did not meet the higher standards required by the vehicle safety evaluation.

Since the Volkswagen Jetta exceeded the passenger seat injury criteria and is suspected of not meeting vehicle safety standards, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to conduct a defect investigation and take consumer protection measures such as recalls and fines if necessary.

Meanwhile, there was no significant difference in safety between electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles.

Comparing the average scores by category of vehicles that received a grade 1 in the electric vehicle and internal combustion engine categories, there was little difference in crash safety and accident prevention safety.

Pedestrian safety showed a 6.7 percentage point advantage for internal combustion engine vehicles, mainly because the Audi A6 among internal combustion engine vehicles was equipped with a deployable hood, receiving the only grade 1 and a high score. The deployable hood is a device that lifts the hood upon pedestrian impact to absorb the shock.

As a result of various crash tests, the evaluated electric vehicles were found to meet the safety levels required by the vehicle safety evaluation regarding the risks of explosion, fire, and electric shock from high-voltage batteries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.