The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) recently awarded top five-star safety ratings to the Kia EV6, Mercedes Benz C-Class, Volvo C40 Recharge and Volkswagen’s Multivan. Stellantis’ cousins, Opel/Vauxhall Astra and Peugeot 308, were both rated four-star cars in the small family category.

All five-star vehicles in this test series demonstrated excellent crash protection, with scores of 90% or more, compared to 76% and 80% for the Stellantis’ cars.

The biggest difference between the EV6, C-Class, C40 Recharge and Multivan was in the “vulnerable road user” protection offered, particularly in front-end performance. The C-Class, fitted with an active bonnet, outperformed the KIA EV6 by a significant margin. On overall assistance technology, the Volvo C40 Recharge scored at the top. Despite its boxy shape, the VW Multivan’s “solid all-round result” was on par with the cars tested, according to Euro NCAP.

Euro NCAP performs crash tests on new vehicles and provides independent safety performance assessments of some of the most popular cars sold in Europe. The safety group was established in 1997 and backed by several European Governments, motoring, consumer and insurance organizations.

The Mercedes-Benz’s Car-to-X Communication system an optional Mercedes-me service, earned a Euro NCAP Advanced reward. The system utilizes data from other vehicles to issue an early warning, via a cloud-based service, of potential hazards in a car’s vicinity before they might otherwise be detected.

“On the whole, we see good scores for crash protection which is, of course, reassuring. But crash avoidance is as important as crash protection and the benefits of simply not being in a collision are, of course, immeasurably greater,” said Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP secretary general. “Some manufacturers will have to continue to up their game in this area if they are not going to be left behind by the competition.”