The 2021 Subaru Ascent earned a Top Safety Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) due to good-rated headlights, the IIHS said.

To qualify for a 2020 Top Safety Pick+ award, a vehicle must earn good ratings in the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. It also needs advanced or superior ratings for both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention, as well as an acceptable or good rating for all its available headlight options.

Good-rated curve-adaptive LED projector headlights come standard on the 2021 Ascent. On the 2020 model, these headlights were only available on certain trims, while the base headlights were poor-rated halogens, IIHS said. A front crash prevention system designed to recognize both vehicles and pedestrians also comes standard. The Ascent earns a superior rating for both the vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian interactions.

In the vehicle-to-vehicle evaluation, the Ascent avoided collisions in both the 12 and 25 mph track tests. In the vehicle-to-pedestrian test, the Ascent avoided collisions in the 12 mph and 25 mph scenarios simulating an adult crossing the road in each of the five trials. It also avoided striking the dummy in the 25 mph scenario simulating an adult walking parallel to the road. In the 12 and 25 mph scenario simulating a child crossing the road from behind two parked cars and the 37 mph parallel adult test, it averaged substantial speed reductions.

Four other models from Subaru previously qualified for 2020 Top Safety Pick+ awards.