The New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN NCAP) recently held its second bi-annual awards ceremony, the ASEAN NCAP Grand Prix 2016, at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.

The ASEAN NCAP Grand Prix commemorates the achievement of vehicles that have participated in the ASEAN NCAP assessment over the last two years. There are three main award categories: best occupant protection, best safety technology, and special awards given to vehicles/companies which contributed to enhancing safety in the region.

Toyota won six awards for best occupant protection. Here, vehicles are judged based on frontal and side crash tests conducted by ASEAN NCAP on vehicles which are fitted with crash test dummies of different sizes that represent adult and child occupants. During the crash test, the damage sustained by the vehicle and the crash test dummies are carefully assessed and quantified. This assessment is then translated into a numerical score. Based on this, the vehicle with the highest score is awarded the Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) and/or Child Occupant Protection (COP) title respectively for each vehicle category.

The six awards for the best occupant protection classifications are:

Toyota Sienta:  Best Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) for MPV Category

Toyota Agya: Best Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) for Mini Car Category

Toyota Agya: Best Child Occupant Protection (COP) Mini Car Category

Toyota Innova: Best Child Occupant Protection (COP) for MPV Category

Toyota Rush: Best Child Occupant Protection (COP) for SUV Category

Toyota Hilux: Best Child Occupant Protection (COP) for Pickup Category

Toyota was also presented with an award for its safety technology, the Blind Spot Monitor. This technology was recognised for its ability to help avoid accidents by alerting drivers of oncoming vehicles that may not be within their field of vision.

Additionally, Toyota received a special recognition award―the Rising Star Recognition, for its efforts at improving safety standards in the ASEAN region with the Toyota Corolla. The Japanese carmaker was recognised for its efforts, where the carmaker made the Corolla standardised with Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) and seven airbags for all grades, in all ASEAN countries, from November 2016 onwards.

The awards for safety technology and special recognition are:

Blind Spot Monitor: Safety Technology Award (Car Manufacturer)

Toyota Corolla: Rising Star Recognition

Apart from these awards, the carmaker has also received AOP 5-star ratings for three models sold in Southeast Asia―the Hilux, the Innova and the Sienta, which were tested between 2015 and 2016.

Toyota, which considers safety as its top priority, aims to eliminate traffic fatalities altogether. To achieve this goal, the company has been developing safety features and conducting extensive R&D on safety, which involves conducting crash tests and simulations on its own, and then analysing the results to continually improve its safety features.

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