The Global NCAP recently crash tested the India-spec Kia Seltos and it only managed to secure a 3-star adult occupant safety rating and a rather poor 2-star safety rating from child occupant protection.
The Global NCAP has conducted yet another series of crash tests for cars sold here in India and the results are quite shocking this time. We are talking about the Kia Seltos here, which underwent the Global NCAP crash tests, and has come away with only a three-star safety rating. The Kia Seltos is a hugely popular SUV in India, with Kia having sold over 1.25 lakh units of the SUV since its launch over an year ago. It looks very stylish, is well packaged with features and powertrain options but a three-star safety rating is rather disappointing for such a popular vehicle.
Global NCAP, as is their norm, has tested the base HTE variant of the Seltos, and that misses out on a few additional safety features that’s offered on the higher-spec models. Still, the Seltos has managed to secure three stars on adult occupant protection. The frontal crash test of the SUV was conducted at a speed of 64kph. Global NCAP’s crash test report states that the Seltos’s structure and footwell area were both borderline ‘unstable’ on impact. In fact, the bodyshell of the SUV couldn’t have withstood further loadings.
The Seltos managed a score of 8.03 points out of a maximum 17 for adult occupant protection. Head protection for both the driver and passenger were only adequate as the airbags for both driver and passenger bottomed out on impact. Neck protection was however rated to be good. Meanwhile, chest protection for the driver was rated as marginal while neck protection for the passenger was rated to be good. The driver and passenger knee protection was again rated only ‘marginal’, with Global NCAP noting they could come in contact with ‘dangerous structures behind the dashboard’.
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The Seltos’s score on child protection wasn’t that great either. The SUV managed to secure only a two-star rating with only 15 points out of a maximum 49 available. The child seat on the Kia Seltos was unable to prevent excessive forward movement, as a result of which, the 3-year-old child dummy sitting in a forward-facing child seat made contact with the car’s interior on impact. The report also stated that the SUV only offered ‘limited protection’ for the head and neck of the 3-year-old child dummy. Child protection for a 18-month-old child dummy sitting on rearward-facing child seat was however rated acceptable.
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The report also pointed out that the Seltos doe not come with standard three-point seat belt for all the passengers and even lacked standard ISOFIX child seat anchorages for most variants, being offered only from the HTX trim onwards. While Kia did an excellent job with the SUV itself, a better safety rating certainly would have helped its case. This particularly comes across as a surprise when even home-grown manufacturers like Tata and Mahindra are taking safety very seriously, securing four or five-star ratings for their own cars.
