Latin NCAP Latest Results: From Zero To Hero

New Onix Plus scores five stars for both adult and child occupants and Advanced Award for Pedestrian Protection. Chery disappoints badly with zero stars result.

The New Car Assessment Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean, Latin NCAP, sixth set of results of 2019 were released today with the replacement of the best-selling model in Latin America achieving five stars for adult and child protection, whilst a popular compact SUV scored an unacceptable zero stars.

The Chevrolet New Onix Plus, manufactured in Brazil, achieved five stars for Adult and Child Occupant Protection plus a Latin NCAP Advanced Awards for its Pedestrian Protection. The recently launched Chevrolet New Onix Plus offers Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and 6 airbags as standard: two frontal, two side body plus two curtain airbags. The New Onix Plus showed good performance in frontal, side and side pole impact for adult and child occupant protection. Chevrolet recommended to install both child dummies facing rearwards, following latest global best practices. This was confirmed with high protection score in the dynamic test for child occupants. The New Onix Plus offers Seatbelt Reminders (SBR) as standard in front and in the rear seats, which is a very relevant equipment not yet that common in Latin America. Moreover the New Onix Plus offers Pedestrian Protection as standard, according to United Nations Regulation and this relevant characteristic made the model earn a Latin NCAP Advanced Award. The New Chevrolet Onix Plus, that aims to substitute in the market the best-selling model in Brazil and in the region, is a milestone in vehicle safety offer in Latin America with a popular model offering such a level of basic safety equipment.

Latin NCAP recommends consumers from the region to only buy cars offering ESC.

The Chery Tiggo 3, manufactured in China, scored zero stars for Adult Occupant Protection and one star for Child Occupant Protection. The compact SUV offers double frontal airbags as standard but the high compression recorded in the driver chest in the frontal impact reached values beyond the biomechanical limits accepted by Latin NCAP, indicating high probability of life threatening injuries during the crash. The structure of the Tiggo 3 was rated as unstable and would not be able to withstand further loadings. Child Occupant Protection scored just one star due to the lack of recommendation of the manufacturer of Child Restraint Systems (CRS)s to be used in the test, lack of passenger airbag disabling switch, poor ISOFIX markings and CRS that failed the installation tests.

Alejandro Furas, Secretary General of Latin NCAP said:
“This is a remarkable safety performance for the Chevrolet New Onix Plus. It is a milestone for Latin America and provides clear evidence of how Latin NCAP´s tests are building market for safer cars.. The Onix has been Latin America´s most popular model and it is great to see that its new version offers top level safety for adult and child occupants and also earns our Advanced Award for its pedestrian protection. With the New Onix Plus, Chevrolet, General Motors is setting a new safety benchmark on that segment and challenging its direct competitors in the most popular market segment of the region.

At the same time it is a major concern for Latin NCAP that there are still zero star cars such as the Tiggo 3 being sold in Latin America. The car fails to offer minimum protection in a frontal crash even with airbags fitted. Latin NCAP is determined to drive zero stars cars out of Latin American market and calls all governments and regional institutions, to support independent consumer information programmes like Latin NCAP.”

Ricardo Morales Rubio, Latin NCAP Chairman said:
“This new and good result from Chevrolet confirms that if they challenge themselves, manufacturers can offer popular vehicles with maximum safety rating. We congratulate Chevrolet for its reaction to improve in two years the most popular model in the region, from zero to five stars. We hope to see this change in the entire fleet of models that Chevrolet sells in the region. On the other hand, the result of the Chery Tiggo 3 is very disappointing; a brand that is present in several countries in the region and has only obtained zero-star results in the Latin NCAP Programme. This shows how some manufacturers or importers in the region still do not take safety as something important. Consumers in our region deserve to be able to access cars with the same safety from other regions without paying more for it.”

David Ward, Global NCAP President and CEO said:
“We have been critical in the past of General Motors for selling zero star cars in Latin America, but credit where credit is due, with the Onix they have transformed the safety standard of Latin America’s top selling model. The double five-star award for adult and child occupant protection is excellent. And on top of that they have earned an award for pedestrian protection and included electronic stability control as standard. This is a very good result for GM and sets a new benchmark for car safety in Latin America. It is also testimony to the life saving work of Latin NCAP and their constructive dialogue with car manufacturers. The outstanding result for the Onix is in marked contrast to the zero-star Tiggo 3 which reminds us all that there are still some very badly performing cars on the market which Latin American consumers should avoid at all costs.”

Dr. Kelly Henning, Bloomberg Philanthropies said:
“Road users in every country deserve vehicles that meet basic safety requirements. So it’s incredibly positive to see GM prioritize vehicle safety and improve its top-selling model in Latin America, the Chevrolet Onix, from a 0-star to a 5-star car. We hope that GM continues to improve its fleet across Latin America and that other manufacturers will follow suit, especially ones like Chery that received a 0-star result today on the Tiggo 3.”

Chevrolet New Onix Plus
Read the full crash test report
Watch the crash test video
Watch ESC test video
Watch Pedestrian Protection video
Download crash test image

Chery Tiggo 3
Read the full crash test report
Watch the crash test video
Download crash test image

About Latin NCAP
The Latin New Car Assessment Programme (Latin NCAP) was launched in 2010 to develop a regional system of independent crashworthiness and safety rating across Latin America and Caribbean (LAC). Latin NCAP replicates similar consumer testing programmes developed over the last thirty years in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and which have proved to be very effective in improving the safety of motor vehicles. Since 2010 Latin NCAP has published the results of more than one hounded cars, all results available at www.latinncap.com/results.

Latin NCAP acknowledges the support received by the Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP), International Consumer Research and Testing (ICRT), FIA Foundation, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Initiative.

Latin NCAP is an Associate member of Global NCAP and supports the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 and the Stop the Crash Partnership.

More info: www.latinncap.com