Saar: The tested variant was the D4 AWD Momentum, which recently went on sale in India.

This was on the cards, wasn’t it?! Euro NCAP, which is the common crash-testing body for all cars that are on sale in Europe, has given the Volvo XC40 an overall safety rating of five stars. For the uninitiated, NCAP stands for New Car Assessment Programme. The variant that was put through a series of crash-tests was the XC40 D4 AWD Momentum, a variant that has recently gone on sale in India. Like all other cars that land in Euro NCAP’s territory, the Volvo XC40 was tested for adult occupants at the front, child occupants at the rear seat, pedestrian safety and how effective the onboard safety kit is.

For adults, Euro NCAP awarded the Volvo XC40 with a score of 97 per cent, whereas for child occupants, the SUV scored 87 per cent. In the pedestrian safety and safety assist categories, the XC40 scored 71 per cent and 76 per cent respectively. Since the test vehicle was the base-spec Momentum variant, all higher variants will maintain the overall five-star safety score, while doing better on the safety assist front.

The variant tested had no integrated CRS (child restraint system), optional ISOFIX anchorages in the front passenger seat and no active bonnet, which helps in reducing the impact on pedestrians. The only other misses were knee airbags for the front and rear passengers and the front airbag for rear passengers.

Euro NCAP reports that the passenger compartment of the XC40 remained stable in the frontal offset test. For adult occupants in the front, nearly all critical body parts of the dummies had good protection. In full-width rigid barrier test, the SUV provided marginal protection to the chest of rear passengers. Apart from that, protection for all other critical body regions was rated good. In both the side barrier and the side pole tests, the XC40 scored maximum points by providing good protection.

For child occupants, Euro NCAP uses two differently sized dummies – one of an average 6 years old and one of an average 10 years old. In the frontal offset and side barrier tests, the Volvo XC40 received a good rating in protecting the dummies in the rear seat. The Swedish SUV also scored points because the front passenger-side airbag can be deactivated to allow a rearward-facing child seat to come in place. Other safety gizmos for rear passengers worked well, reported Euro NCAP.

As far as safety for pedestrians is concerned, the XC40’s stiff windscreen pillars scored poorly. That said, the bonnet provided good or adequate protection to the head of the pedestrian that you might accidentally hit in normal city driving conditions. The front bumper’s design helped the car to score maximum points by providing good protection to the legs. For the pelvis, the Volvo XC40 delivered a mixed-bag of results, with good protection on certain areas and poor on some. The SUV’s automatic emergency braking (AEB) technology performed well in all lighting conditions but was weak in tests with a target crossing a vehicle’s path.

Pure Electric Volvo XC40 In The Making

Lastly, the crash-testing agency recognised bundle of safety tech that the Volvo XC40 comes with as standard. In varied testing scenarios, the speed assistance system worked adequately. Euro NCAP reported that the AEB system worked without a problem in all test simulations of highway driving, losing only a fraction of a point.

Prior to crash-testing the Volvo XC40, Euro NCAP tested the 2017 models of the XC60, S90 and V90. All three, like the XC40, received an overall safety score of five stars.