Kia’s ute has won a strong result from the national safety auditor, but it only stands for the four-wheel-drive dual cab. Other variants are unrated.

ACHIEVEMENT of a maximum safety score from our national crash test auditor for Kia’s first utility is well-timed, with first examples now filtering into national showrooms.

However, the result announced today by the Australasian New Car Assessment Programme doesn’t cover all versions of the Tasman.

Application is purely for dual cab four-wheel-drive variants of the new model.

The specifically off-road enhanced X-Line and X-Pro variants that will potentially be considered by families and fun-seekers, as well as rear-wheel-drive, and upcoming single-cab and dual cab-chassis variants that aim more at working use have not been assessed by ANCAP.

They remain unrated and reports out Australia suggest that might always be the case, especially with the X-Line and X-Pro.

These have an off-road bumper Kia accepts makes them less effective in pedestrian protection. In a recent interview, the general manager for product for Kia Australia explained how this is problematic for registering positively with ANCAP.

“(The front bumper of lower grades) is safety related, in that the lower approach angle in effect assists with pedestrian safety, or vulnerable road user detection,” Roland Rivero is quoted as saying.

“With the high approach angle the X-Line and X-Pro it’s not as friendly from a lower leg perspective.”

Kia’s debut ute has been conceived to sell in a sector dominated by the Ford Ranger, but in which the Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi Triton and Nissan Navara stand out as strong sellers. Ranger and Hilux feature five-star ANCAP ratings across most of their ranges, they’re also subject to older test criteria, whereas the Kia is up against the latest standards.

While 4x4 dual cab in high-end spec are the favoured choices with all three when bought by private customers, the more journeyman editions are favoured by fleet buyers, who will often not consider products that lack ANCAP sanction or score fewer than five stars. Kia wanted to ensure the variants most suited to that customer base were properly accredited.

Tasman four-by-four delivered strong safety outcomes across all four key areas of assessment: Adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, vulnerable road user protection, and safety assist.

In its announcement, ANCAP said it’s rating “comes at a time when utes continue to dominate the Australian and New Zealand new car markets.”

Four of the eight top selling vehicles in NZ last month were utes. Ranger, Hilux, the Isuzu d-Max and BYD Shark 6 all hold five star ANCAP ratings.

“The popularity of utes among consumers continues to rise,” ANCAP chief executive officer Carla Hoorweg said.

“Given their time spent on the road both as commercial workhorses and family transport, it is important that models in this high-volume segment offer robust levels of safety.”

ANCAP said the Tasman performed well across the range of crash protection and collision avoidance tests.

Notable high scores, denoting low risk of injury, were recorded for each of the adult and child dummy occupants in the frontal offset crash test. Equally impressive was the moderately low crash compatibility risk. This assessment evaluates the risk the test vehicle poses to potential crash partner vehicles and their occupants. For a vehicle of its size and mass, the Tasman performed very well.

A concern was noted in the full width frontal crash test where the pelvis of the driver dummy slipped beneath lap section of the seatbelt. A penalty was applied.