Kia Carens Safety Rating Is 3 Stars

Global NCAP today announced crash test result of Kia’s newest car in India – Carens MPV has scored 3 star safety rating

Kia Carens 7 seater MPV has met with resounding success in India. Launched in February 2022, the company amassed over 50,000 bookings in two months of opening order books. Bookings continue to pour in and Kia India has released a new list indicating waiting periods for customers booking the Carens.

This waiting period extends up to 75 weeks in the case of its entry level variants and depending on colour choices. With such huge demand for Carens, many buyers were awaiting crash test results of Carens. Their waiting is now over, as Global NCAP has crash tested the Kia Carens India Spec.

Kia Carens Safety Rating – 3 Stars Global NCAP

Kia Carens has scored 9.30 points out of 17 in adult safety and 30.99 points out of 49 in child safety. The variant crash tested had 6 airbags. Kia offers 6 airbags as standard across all variants of Carens.

Speaking about Kia Carens Safety for adults – The protection offered to the driver’s and passenger’s head and neck was good. The protection offered to the driver’s chest was marginal while the passenger’s chest was good. Driver’s and passenger’s knees showed marginal protection as they can impact with dangerous structures behind the dashboard supported by the transfascia tube.

Driver’s tibias showed adequate and good protection and the passenger’s tibias showed good protection. The bodyshell and footwell area were rated as unstable and they were not capable of withstanding further loadings. The car offers standard SBR for driver and passenger. The UN95 test showed that the car could pass the requirements. All of the above explains the 3 stars for adult occupant protection.

Speaking about child safety in Kia Carens – “The child seat for the 3 year old was installed FWF with ISOFIX and top tether and it was not able to prevent excessive head excursion during the impact, offering poor protection to the head and fair to the chest. The child seat for the 1.5 years old was installed RWF with ISOFIX and support leg and was able to prevent head exposure during the impact offering good protection to the head and chest. CRS marking was ok.

The recommended CRSs did not show incompatibilities. The vehicle does not offer 3 point belts in all seating positions (lap belt in the rear centre position) and ISOFIX anchorages in the rear outboard positions but were not marked according to Global NCAP requirements. All of the above explains the three stars for child occupant protection.”

Global NCAP to Kia

Alejandro Furas, Secretary General of Global NCAP said, “Global NCAP welcomes Kia’s decision to make six airbags a standard fit in the Carens ahead of a regulatory requirement. However, we expected a better performance from this model. It remains a cause for concern that global car brands such as Kia, that normally achieve 5 star ratings in other markets, are still not reaching this level in India.”

David Ward, President of the Towards Zero Foundation said, “As our current test protocols come to an end I am pleased to see the continuing safety commitment from Indian automakers like Mahindra, achieving their second ‘Safer Choice’ Award. The evolution of our testing requirements under the new protocols which come into effect from next month are intended to take the progress we have seen over the last eight years to the next level.”