While the Kia Carnival, Skoda Superb, and Mercedes-Benz E-Class were all awarded five-star scores from ANCAP, none of the results were straightforward and easy to understand.
The latest round of Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) safety scores has underlined the complexity of the ratings system, with the Kia Carnival hybrid, Skoda Superb, and Mercedes-Benz E-Class achieving top marks, but with caveats.
The new Kia Carnival hybrid would have failed to achieve a maximum five-star safety score if it was tested to the criteria of its 2024 release year, but the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) has awarded it with a top score based on four-year-old testing.
While ANCAP has stated it will look to find shortcuts to expediate testing time and resources with new hybrid and electric variants where appropriate – with additional testing – the Kia Carnival hybrid’s result highlights potential confusion with the safety body’s testing criteria.
That additional testing entailed extra examination of the hybrid powertrain “to confirm integrity of the battery and safety of high voltage electrical systems”, as well as another frontal offset and oblique pole crash test with car’s supplied by Kia.
However, despite this added information, the Carnival hybrid was awarded an identical score to its 2021 petrol and diesel counterparts, with 90, 88, 68, and 82 per cent results respectively for adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, vulnerable road user protection, and safety assist examinations – enough for a five-star score back then.
Between now and then, ANCAP has tightened its criteria for a five-star score, increasing the minimum score requirement of its vulnerable road user protection test to 70 per cent in 2023 – and will continue to change some criteria every three years.
As such, the Carnival hybrid – released in mid-2024 after the introduction of the facelifted Kia people mover line-up – would be relegated to four stars for falling two per cent below the five-star threshold in the vulnerable road user protection test based on the current ruleset.
This does mean the Carnival hybrid, despite only arriving in Australia last year, wears a 2021 date stamp for its five-star result, expiring in 2027 like the rest of the Kia people mover line-up.
However, the Superb’s result is based from testing of the overseas version of the Volkswagen Passat – a nameplate no longer offered in Australian showrooms.
Based on ANCAP’s ‘corporate twin’ or ‘partner model’ program – which allows vehicles that have common underpinnings, and can vary slightly in dimensions and powertrain to share test results – the overseas Passat scored 93, 87, and 82 per cent respectively across the adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, and vulnerable road user protection.
The Superb does differ from the Passat in the safety assist category however, with ANCAP’s additional testing yielding a five per cent higher score of 85 per cent for the Skoda.
Aside from the safety assist assessment, the Australian Skoda Superb adopts identical scores – as well as the Volkswagen Passat’s 2024 rating date stamp that is set to expire in 2030 – thanks to technical information verified by ANCAP.
Finally, the all non-AMG versions of the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class netted a solid result, achieving high marks for the adult occupant protection and child occupant protection tests (92% and 90% respectively).
The vulnerable road user protection and safety assist assessments meanwhile, notched 84 and 87 per cent results.
Like the Skoda Superb, testing of the Mercedes-Benz was conducted in Europe in 2024 – the same year the current-generation E200 was launched in Australia, with the E300 having arrived earlier in 2025.
This means the ANCAP result comes around 12 months after the new-generation E-Class first launched in Australia, despite results having been available from overseas testing.
Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.
