Even though there were talks of a coalition between Tata and Chery, we are less likely to see Chery Omoda 5 in India
Chinese carmaker Chery has re-entered the Australian market after seven years of absence. Now, Chery is selling its new compact SUV Omoda 5 in Australia. Omoda 5 scored a good 5 stars in Euro NCAP crash tests (outgoing 2020 – 2022 rating criteria) and proves its mettle. Last set of Chery vehicles in Australia were on sale 7 years ago.
They were J11 and J1 and both of them didn’t make a good impression in terms of safety, with 2 and 3 stars respectively. Now Chery is on a quest to establish stronger safety credentials in the Australian market than it could seven years ago. Recent Omoda 5 compact SUV shows steps in the right direction.
Chery Omoda 5 Scores 5 Stars In Euro NCAP
ANCAP (Australian NCAP) agency didn’t seem to physically test the new Omoda 5. Chery launched Omoda 5 in Australia in March 2023 and is the same model as the one sold in Europe. Both Euro and Australian model are likely to show similar crash safety credentials as both Euro NCAP and Australian NCAP have comparable ethos.
So, ANCAP’s 5 star rating for Chery Omoda 5 is based on Euro NCAP’s 5 star crash rating. That said, ANCAP did test Australia-spec Omoda 5’s latest lane support software. This way, ANCAP verified subsequent testing done by Euro NCAP with specific attributes like Lane Keep Assist and Emergency Lane Keeping.
“The additional tests, conducted locally, showed vehicles with the updated software maintained a similar level of performance to the test results obtained in initial European testing, though the local vehicle did not respond in a small number of emergency lane keeping test scenarios and this is reflected in a reduced score for ELK,” the safety authority said.
How good are the safety credentials?
As per the actual crash test rating, Chery Omoda 5 scored 87% adult occupant protection rating, 88% child occupant protection rating, 68% in vulnerable road user protection and 83% in safety assist rating. Currently, these ratings are awarded to 1.5L petrol variants of Omoda 5, but 1.6L and fully electric variants could yield similar scores. The testing agency declared the vehicle’s structural performance as “sound”. Some dashboard plastic elements could pose potential risk for knee injuries and side curtain airbags didn’t deploy as intended with side impact tests.
Chery Omoda 5 gets mandatory autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, emergency lane keeping, cruise assist, lane-keep assist, traffic jam assist, traffic sign monitoring, driver attention monitoring, and a lot more safety kit. There were talks of Chery making a grand entrance in Indian market through a coalition with Tata Motors, which didn’t see the light of day. So, chances of seeing Chery vehicles on Indian roads are virtually zero at this point.
