Two of Australia’s upcoming electric hatchbacks have just received the five-stars ANCAP rating from Australia’s leading car safety authority.
The all-electric Cupra Born and the GWM Ora (Funky Cat) have joined the club of some of the safest vehicles in the country after the results were released this week.
Both of these cars happen to be the only five-star rated small cars in the segment in the 2020-2022 rating criteria.
At the announcement of the latest results, ANCAP Chief Executive, Carla Hoorweg said:
“It’s great to see another fully electric model enter our market with the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating. The momentum for safe and green models is growing, and this rating will provide further confidence to consumers and regulators to embrace safety and environmental credentials as a non-negotiable package,”
The Cupra Born received high scores in a few of the 4 key areas. The awarded results from ANCAP were:
- 93% for Adult Occupant protection
- 89% for Child Occupant protection
- 80% for Safety Assist features
- 73% for Vulnerable Road User protection
The Cupra Born #EV arrives in AUS and NZ with a 5 star ANCAP safety rating. The Cupra Born achieved solid scores across all areas of ANCAP’s assessment.
View the safety ratings for all EVs rated by ANCAP at https://t.co/y9n67AIoIH@CUPRA #safeandgreen #smallcar #5star pic.twitter.com/5gDIEHx7yi— ANCAP Safety Ratings (@ANCAPsafety) March 26, 2023
The Cupra Born received great scores for the protection of passengers in a crash and was fairly good at protecting the lower legs of pedestrians.
The Active safety features were a mixed bag for the Cupra Born. Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) is offered in the Born but according to ANCAP, it works well when the car is travelling forward. The system does not react to pedestrians in reverse.
With more EVs making their way to Australia, it’s good to see even smaller cars score so well for safety. This also helps debunk the myth the large SUVs are much “safer” than smaller cars on the road.
These results would give confidence to private and fleet buyers to consider and EV for their next vehicle as these two electric hatchbacks now meet the highest safety standards, ultimately making our roads safer and cleaner.
The Cupra Born is the first EV in Australia with 500km of range with a price starting with a five in front of it. All in all, it’s 511 km of WLTP range is on offer from a 82 kWh battery pack.
It starts at $59,990 before on-roads and is eligible for EV incentives across various states and territories in Australia.
Some may even call the Cupra Born the first warm all-electric hatch to arrive in Australia. The sportier looks also offer respectable performance with a 0-100 km/hr sprint coming in around 7 seconds.
Based on previous communication from Cupra, the first batch is expected to arrive in Australia next month which is fairly good given orders opened just before Christmas last year.
Now with the five-star ANCAP safety results coming in, it will offer further confidence to hundreds of Cupra Born order holders looking at getting behind the wheel of a sportier looking all-electric hatch.
Full video of the Cupra Born crash test on ANCAP Safety Ratings on YouTube:
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.