Korean brand’s biggest SUV has fallen one star short of top safety marks, but there’s an upgraded model on the way
The second-biggest vehicle in Hyundai’s Australian model range, the Hyundai Palisade, has just been awarded a sub-standard four-star safety rating by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) after the big eight-seat SUV fell short in the areas of adult occupant protection and safety assist.
Interestingly, however, the four-star ANCAP rating only applies to the diesel versions of the Palisade following local crash testing; the petrol variants are still yet to be tested.
Nevertheless, the Palisade achieved a 79 per cent mark for adult occupant protection, 88 per cent for child occupant protection, 63 per cent for vulnerable road user (pedestrians and cyclists) protection and 63 per cent for safety assist.
For reference, the five-star thresholds for the adult occupant protection and safety assist fields are 80 and 70 per cent respectively.
Elaborating on the results, ANCAP said the Palisade’s autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and lane keeping assistance systems “lack the sophistication of systems fitted to peer vehicles assessed to the same criteria” in that the AEB system doesn’t feature a junction detection function, nor is there post-collision braking or a speed limit information system.
It was a similar story when it came to the chest protection of the driver during the oblique pole test, in which the Palisade only managed to yield a ‘marginal’ result – the main blemish on its physical crash test report.
While not essential for a maximum five-star rating, the lack of a centre airbag was also noted by ANCAP and identified as one of the areas Hyundai might be able to improve on future versions.
“The Hyundai Palisade fell short in two of the four key areas of assessment which unfortunately has seen it unable to meet the top level of safety that families and fleets have come to expect,” ANCAP chief executive officer Carla Hoorweg said.
“ANCAP’s role is to provide clear, reliable and independent consumer information for the broadest possible range of popular- selling models, and this rating and timing of the upcoming model update presents an opportunity for Hyundai to factor in the necessary safety-related upgrades to elevate the Palisade to five stars.
“This is an extremely competitive market and segment so we’d encourage Hyundai to do what they can to bring the Palisade to equal footing with its competitors.”
It shouldn’t take too long to find out if Hyundai has improved the Palisade’ safety credentials because a facelifted version is due in local showrooms in the third quarter of this year.
Hyundai told carsales it anticipated the four-star safety rating from ANCAP following internal testing, but hopes the upgraded Palisade will do better when it arrives Down Under and is tested by ANCAP.
“The [four-star] result was in line with our expectations given the internal test data we had,” Hyundai Australia corporate affairs general manager Bill Thomas told carsales.
“We’ve been working closely with ANCAP for some months to facilitate the test, so it’s a matter of working through that process.
“We have not announced safety assist specifications for the upcoming Palisade model yet, but the features will be upgraded and we intend to perform the necessary testing to aim for a five-star result.”
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Keyword: Hyundai Palisade slammed with four-star ANCAP safety rating