Made-in-India Mahindra XUV300 becomes Africa’s first GNCAP 5-star car

The Mahindra XUV300 SUV has done it again. A little over a year after it achieved a five-star GNCAP crash test rating and highest combined score for Indian cars, the popular model been confirmed as Africa’s first GNCAP’s 5-star crash test rated model. Global NCAP’s Indian and African programmes share the same assessment protocols and following a production compliance review, the rating has been confirmed for the model’s rollout in Africa.

The Mahindra XUV300 is the first model to be rated under Global NCAP’s new #SaferCarsForAfrica programme which was inaugurated today in partnership with AA South Africa and with the support of the FIA Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. The #SaferCarsForAfrica Campaign was first launched by Global NCAP in 2017 with the objective of promoting safer vehicles across the continent of Africa.

This five-star GNCAP score will give a greater push to sales of the XUV300, which is among the popular Mahindra vehicles in Africa. Introduced in South Africa in mid-2019, the XUV300 has gone on to become one of Mahindra South Africa’s best-sellers there.

The XUV300, which is available with the option of a new turbodiesel and turbo-petrol engine, has quickly grown to become a top-seller for Mahindra South Africa.

GNCAP's safety report card for the Mahindra XUV300 records five stars for adult occupants and four stars for child occupants. Commenting on the safety of the adult occupant, GNCAP says: “The protection offered to the driver and passenger’s head and neck was good. Driver’s chest showed adequate protection while passenger’s chest received good protection. The bodyshell was rated as stable and it was capable of withstanding further loadings. Footwell area was rated as stable. Side impact Regulation UN95: the car met technical requirements of regulation UN95 as standard. The vehicle has standard SBR for driver and passenger. The car has standard ABS.”

For the child occupant, “The child seat for the 3-year old was able to prevent excessive forward movement during the impact offering fair protection to the chest. The 18-month-old CRS was installed with ISOFIX and support leg and protection offered to the 1.5-year-old dummy was good. The vehicle offers standard ISOFIX and top tether anchorages in the 2 outboard rear seats and does not offer 3-point belts in all seating positions. The car offers passenger airbag disconnection switch in case a rear facing CRS needs to be installed in the front passenger seat.

David Ward, Towards Zero Foundation President said, “We are delighted to see the first five-star result in our Safer Cars for Africa project. This is a landmark moment for vehicle safety in Africa. We are particularly pleased to recognise the continued safety commitment from Mahindra. The XUV300 was engineered in India and demonstrates the capability of the domestic Indian auto industry to achieve excellence in safety design and performance for global export markets.”

Willem Groenewald, AA South Africa CEO, commented: “This is a milestone event for the #SaferCarsforAfrica project, and signals that it is possible to achieve this excellent rating for vehicles in our market. We are particularly pleased that this rating has been achieved through a compliance review. We applaud the fact that there is a reasonably priced five-star vehicle available in Africa which gives consumers a safe choice when purchasing a new car.”

Why Africa needs safer vehicles
Road traffic injuries constitute a major health and development problem the world over but especially in the African Region. A 2019 WHO report on mortality rate per country has it that the continent registered a road-traffic mortality rate of 26.6 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants. Moreover, it accounts for the highest mortality rate in terms of pedestrians and cyclists with 44% of the overall deaths reported for this category of road users.

Also read: Tata Altroz aces Global NCAP crash test with a five-star rating