ASEAN NCAP, the new vehicle assessment programme for Southeast Asian countries, has released the result of its latest crash test, awarding the new Nissan Terra a full five-star safety rating.
The derivative tested was a 2,3-litre rear-wheel-drive model fitted with a seven-speed automatic transmission, built in Thailand and featuring six airbags. The rating is valid for markets such as Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam, despite standard safety equipment levels varying from country to country.
According to the safety authority, the seven-seater SUV – which is based on the Navara bakkie – performed “reasonably well” in terms of adult occupant protection and “remarkably well” in areas of the child occupant protection testing.
Based on its total score of 83,17 points, the Terra was awarded a five-star ASEAN NCAP rating. Interestingly, the organisation made no mention of body shell stability in its report.
“ASEAN NCAP had tested several SUV models under the current 2017-2020 protocol and we are proud that all of them achieved five-star ratings. We are aware that SUVs are among the popular models in the South East Asian region due to their capability to ferry more passengers and carry more goods compared to the regular sedan cars,” said ASEAN NCAP secretary general, Khairil Anwar Abu Kassim.
“Therefore, making vehicles’ structure crashworthy and fitting them with safety features that could minimise the occupants’ injury or avoid the collision altogether [is] the best action for vehicle manufacturers to make,” he added.
Take note that the Terra (conceived to take on the likes of the Toyota Fortuner, Ford Everest, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and Isuzu MU-X) has yet to be officially confirmed for South Africa, although in February, Nissan SA told CARmag.co.za that it was “working closely” with its parent company to “develop a vehicle that is suitable to the sub-Saharan market”.
Watch the crash-test footage below…
