Not intending irony, a made in China car has been awarded five star safety by the European car safety program Euro NCAP while an Indian car is yet to come even close in terms of safety. The Qoros 3 sedan is the first made-in-China car to be awarded a five star safety rating. In fact, the 3 sedan is also the safest vehicle Euro NCAP has tested in 2013 not particular to any category. The New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) runs stringent tests which assess the risk of injury during frontal collisions, side impacts and rollovers. Euro NCAP helps buyers understand the product they are looking out for and also keeps auto companies under pressure to build safer cars.
Euro NCAP gave the Qoros 3 sedan an impressive 95 percent safety in adult occupancy and again the highest in child occupancy at 87 percent. The Chinese car topped the charts in the small family car segment in all types of impacts – front, side impacts and pole impact collisions. The passenger compartment remained almost damage-free during the frontal collision. Side impacts provided good protection to body too. Child occupancy scored a high too, ensuring minimum forward movement during impact and body was safely contained by their restrains during side impacts.
Qoros was founded in 2007 as a joint venture between Chery Automobile of China and an Israeli firm. Qoros is based in Shanghai and the 3 sedan is their first product under the joint venture. These results suggest Qoros’ focus on providing an overall quality product. Immense efforts must have been put considering how Chinese companies are looked at when it comes to quality, life or safety of products. And Qoros had to come above all these to make a Chinese product stand out in the market.
In other segments, the cars which topped the charts in their respective categories are – the Renault Zoe (Supermini), Kia Carens and Ford Tourneo Connect (Small MPV), Jeep Cherokee (Small Off-Road 4×4), Lexus IS 300h (Large Family) and the Maserati Ghibli (Executive).
