Honda HR-V gets four-star ANCAP safety score

The Honda HR-V small SUV has fallen short of the top rating in ANCAP’s latest round of crash test results, achieving a four-star score.

It fell short of the minimum score to net five stars in two of the four major areas of assessment – namely Child Occupant Protection (77 per cent) and Safety Assist (69 per cent).

ANCAP’s cutoffs for the five-star score in these two assessment areas are 80 per cent and 70 per cent respectively – meaning the Honda fell just short of the mark.

The HR-V performed to a five-star standard in the other two areas of testing, namely Adult Occupant Protection (82 per cent) and VulnerableRoad User Protection (72 per cent).

The Honda HR-V’s four-star rating carries a 2022 date stamp and applies to both petrol and hybrid models.

The ANCAP result is based on Euro NCAP impact testing, and the HR-V also scored four stars in Europe despite different category scores.

In the Child Occupant Protection frontal offset test the Honda received a ‘Weak’ rating for protection of the head of a 10-year old child crash dummy, and an ‘Adequate’ rating for neck protection.

In the Safety Assist tests, while the HR-V attained ‘Good’ ratings for its autonomous emergency braking (AEB) functions and lane support systems, it was punished for its lack of Intelligent Speed Assistance on all variants, missing rear-seat occupancy detection alert, and absence of a driver drowsiness monitor.

“Both the petrol and hybrid variants of the Honda HR-V have been rated as four star,” ANCAP said.

“The HR-V fell short of five stars in two of the four key areas of assessment – Child Occupant Protection and Safety Assist.

“A Weak head protection score was recorded for the 10-year old child in the side impact test, and both occupancy detection for rear seating positions and driver fatigue monitoring are not available.

“Good scores were recorded for the HR-V’s lane-keeping and forward-travel autonomous emergency braking ability. AEB Backover functionality is not available.”

The Honda HR-V is an outlier in the small SUV market as only a four-seater (not five), because the middle-rear seat would have lacked a top tether child-seat point and thereby would not have met ADR requirements.

MORE: 2022 Honda HR-V to be four-seater only in Australia MORE: Honda HR-V hybrid, Accord hybrid wait times pass 10 months MORE: Here’s how ANCAP is making crash tests harder from 2023