Because of their safety specifications, 4th Gen Swift features different crash ratings for Europe and Australasian markets
Suzuki is one of the leading brands in hatchbacks and affordable vehicles. Swift has been recently updated to the 4th Generation model and is well-received in India and in many global markets. While India-spec 4th Gen Swift has not been crash-tested yet, Euro NCAP awarded 3 Stars rating for Euro-spec version of this hatchback.
Now, recent crash tests from Australian NCAP (crash testing body for Australia and New Zealand) have crash-tested ADAS-equipped 4th Gen Swift and awarded just 1 Star. That is because the safety specifications for Australia and New Zealand were different to those sold in Europe. Let’s take a closer look.
New Suzuki Swift Australia NCAP
In a rather interesting turn of events, Australia NCAP has published the crash safety results of the new Swift. The expectations were that Australian model would perform very similarly to European model. However, Suzuki suggested that the European Swift and Australian Swift came with different safety specifications.
ANCAP CEO, Carla Hoorweg, mentioned ANCAP was informed about the physical differences between Aussie-spec Swift and Euro-spec Swift. Thus necessitating a bunch of additional crash tests on Australia-spec Swift. He mentioned that the results had some areas of concern.
In the ANCAP crash tests, 4th Gen Swift for Australia and New Zealand scored just 1 Star and failed to score a minimum of 50% in all tests, which would have yielded 2 Stars. Adult Occupant Protection test stood at 47% with 18.88/40 points earned, Child Occupant Protection test was at 59% with 29.24/49 points.
Vulnerable Road User Protection test yielded 76% with 48.40/63 points and Safety Assist test stood at 54% with 9.78/18 points. In comparison, Euro-spec 4th Gen Swift showed much better crash performance with 67% in Adult Occupant Protection, 65% in Child Occupant Protection, 76% in Vulnerable Road User Protection and 62% in Safety Assist.
ANCAP CEO Express Concerns
Generally, cars destined to launch in Australasia do not need a separate crash test over Euro NCAP ratings if the safety specification is identical. ANCAP CEO, Carla Hoorweg expressed his concerns that an average buyer will not be aware that cars feature different safety credentials even though they look the same and have the same name as Europe-spec models.
In India, however, the story gets a lot more interesting. That’s because, 4th Gen Swift’s sedan counterpart, Dzire, just scored a stellar 5 Star crash ratingawarded by Global NCAP. General consensus might gravitate to believe that 4th Gen Swift (India-spec) is likely to score similar crash ratings as Dzire. All these questions will be answered when India-spec Swift is crash-tested.
