The follow-up to the popular ASX small SUV will likely only be rated at four safety stars, falling short of top marks, but Mitsubishi reckons the car is safe enough.
Mitsubishi Australia’s new ASX small SUV is expected to come to market wearing a four-star ANCAP safety rating based on European testing of the related Renault Captur.
While that is below the top-level five-star score, Mitsubishi Australia SUV and Electrification Product Strategy Manager Tim Clarke believes it will not dissuade the brand’s target market for the new ASX.
“It’s got a Euro NCAP four-star rating from MME [Mitsubishi Motors Europe], and we’re going to have that locally assessed by ANCAP to have its rating put on the website,” Clarke said.
“It [not having a five-star safety rating] is not such a big deal in the private buyer space.
“Having the technology is one [thing] but having a five-star rating didn’t show up in our research for a private buyer.”
While five stars is the highest rating a car can receive, ANCAP mandates certain features to be included as standard to be eligible for the rating, regardless of physical crash-test performance.
For example, autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and a driver monitor is required under the current protocols, which are set to be updated from 2026.
In European testing from 2024– which is based on the mechanically related, left-hand-drive Renault Symbioz – the Captur was awarded its highest score of 80 per cent in the child occupant protection examination, while the adult occupant and vulnerable road user protection tests yielded a 76 per cent score each.
For the safety assist category, the Renault Captur was awarded 69 per cent.
According to the current Euro NCAP protocols – from which ANCAP is aligned – vehicles must score 80 per cent or above in the adult and child occupant protection tests, as well as 70 per cent or more in the vulnerable road user protection and safety assist assessments to qualify for a five-star rating.
While falling short on the safety assist category and adult occupant protection test, the new ASX also lacks a driver monitoring system that is required for the maximum number of stars.
However, businesses often mandate five-star safety for their purchases, making the new ASX ineligible for fleets – limiting its volume potential with 38 per cent of the nameplate’s sales last year going towards non-private buyers.
Mitsubishi is also not the only major brand fielding a competitor in the small SUV segment without a maximum five-star safety rating.
The MG ZS and Hyundai Kona – the most and second-most poplar nameplates in the class – both have four-star ANCAP scores, while the Cupra Tavascan, Honda HR-V, and Jeep Avenger also have sub-five-star ratings.
Mitsubishi Australia General Manager of Product Strategy Bruce Hampel said ANCAP’s increasingly stringent five-star mandate is driving up development costs, which car brands need to balance with delivering value to customers.
“A few other OEMS are going through the same journey as it becomes more and more costly to deliver five stars, it really questions the value that its offering to the customers,” Hampel said.
“Whether a four-star vehicle, which has been indicated is an extremely safe vehicle – four stars in today’s protocol is safer than five stars in the past – but trying to educate the general consumer that that’s the case is challenging.
“Whether it really influences their purchase decision or not is up to debate.”
Hampel also said rhetoric seen by the brand has indicated that the increasingly complex safety systems prevalent in new cars is confusing to new-car customers.
“What we are seeing now though looking at all the safety features that are available to the customer, and a lot of them are reacting in terms of ‘this is overly complicated’, and ‘we want to be able to turn things off simply’,” Hampel said.
“We’re trying to work on ways to allow customers to customise their use of ADAS [Advanced Driver Assistance Systems] features as well.
“This vehicle [ASX], by nature of being four stars doesn’t have the driver monitoring system.
“[And some of] those types of ANCAP-mandated features are not being well received at the moment in the market, and there’s lots of pushback to ANCAP to try and moderate their expectations going forward.”
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.
