The 2021 Kia Carnival has been awarded top marks in ANCAP testing.
The redesigned minivan received a five-star rating from the safety authority, based on an adult occupant protection score of 90 per cent, a child occupant protection score of 88 per cent, a vulnerable road user protection score of 68 per cent and a safety assist score of 82 per cent.
The five-star rating applies to all members of the Carnival troupe.
“The rating for the Kia Carnival has been highly anticipated by families, fleet buyers and hire car companies, and Kia is to be congratulated for this result,” said ANCAP chief executive officer Carla Hoorweg.
The Carnival received maximum scores for the side impact and oblique pole tests, while its autonomous emergency braking was deemed Good at reacting to pedestrians and Adequate with cyclists.
In ANCAP’s assessment of the Carnival’s child occupant protection, it praised Kia for including top-tether and Isofix anchor points for five of its six rear seats.
It noted one type of Type A convertible restraint couldn’t be installed in rearward-facing mode using the ISOFIX anchorages in the second row outboard seats or in the third row.
The centre seat in the third row also lacks top-tether and ISOFIX anchorages.
All Carnivals come standard with the following safety equipment:
- Autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection and junction assist
- Blind-spot assist
- Rear cross-traffic alert
- Lane-following assist
- Lane-keeping assist
- Lane-departure warning
- Driver attention monitoring
- Safe exit warning
- Front and front-side airbags
- Driver’s knee airbag
- Curtain airbags for all three rows
The SLi and Platinum add rear cross-traffic assist, which brakes the car in addition to sounding a warning if it detects an imminent collision.
The safe exit warning is also upgraded to safe exit assist in the SLi and Platinum, which locks the rear doors if it detects a passenger is about to step into the path of an oncoming vehicle.
The new Carnival is the first people mover to be tested under ANCAP’s stricter 2020-22 criteria.
Other people movers that have received five stars, albeit under older criteria, include the Toyota Granvia (2019), Honda Odyssey (2014) and Mercedes-Benz Valente and V-Class (2014).
The Carnival’s budget rival from China, the LDV G10, has a three-star rating from 2015. It lacks active safety technology and has only two airbags.
