2024 Hyundai Kona rated 4 stars in ANCAP safety testing

The Hyundai Kona has been awarded four stars by ANCAP, based on local active safety features and crash test results adopted from partner Euro NCAP.

The four-star rating applies to all Kona variants, including petrol, hybrid and electric, though it was the EV that was subject to destructive testing.

Its rating is derived from the four-star result published by European NCAP in December 2023, when executives said it was “lucky” not to get three stars.

ANCAP notes that the Kona’s test results were mixed, achieving five-star levels of Adult and Child Occupant Protection, but falling short against Safety Assist and Vulnerable Road User criteria.

The latest 2023 ANCAP protocols include heightened requirements for five stars. Penalty points have increased for vehicle-vehicle compatibility, higher scores are needed in Vulnerable Road User protection, and new features including a submergence check (in which the Kona was deemed non-compliant) are required.

Hyundai Australia declined to comment on the Kona’s four-star result.

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Breaking down the score

The Kona scored 80 per cent in Adult Occupant and 83 per cent in Child Occupant Protection, meaning its crashworthiness falls above the minimum standard (80%) for a five-star rating.

ANCAP noted that the Kona performed well in vehicle-vehicle crash compatibility, posing a low threat to other cars. It also scored highly in oblique pole and side impact destructive testing.

However, there were shortcomings for the driver, according to ANCAP’s report: “Protection of the driver's chest in the full width frontal test was assessed as Weak.”

“The driver dummy was also observed to slip beneath the lap portion of the seatbelt in the full width test with crash forces transferred across the abdomen, and a scoring penalty applied for higher abdominal injury risk”, reads ANCAP’s report.

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Ultimately it was the active safety systems that brought the Kona below ANCAP’s five-star threshold, with a 64 per cent rating against Vulnerable Road User criteria (the five-star minimum was upgraded from 60 to 70 per cent minimum for 2023 protocols) and 62 per cent in the Safety Assist area.

There was no single failure point knocking the Kona down in these tests. Instead, a number of ‘adequate’ scores in individual Safety Assist and Vulnerable Road User tests are what pushed the Kona into the four-star zone.

For Euro NCAP, a four-star safety rating is defined as: "Overall good performance in crash protection and all-round; additional crash avoidance technology may be present".

ANCAP takes a stricter view, however, describing a four-star vehicle as one that "Provides an adequate level of safety performance yet fell short in one or more key assessment areas. May present a higher injury risk to occupants and/or other road users in certain scenarios or have a reduced ability to avoid a crash."

The Kona is the latest in a series of less-than-five-star ratings from ANCAP under tighter testing protocols and follows zero-star results for the Mahindra Scorpio and MG 5 in December 2023.