Made in Brazil Honda WR-V though fitted with 2 airbags and ESC as standard features scores a single star in Latin NCAP crash test
It is a known fact that Honda WR-V isn’t exactly a sub 4m SUV, in the sense, that it wasn’t designed from the ground up as a sub 4m SUV. Brezza, Nexon, Venue and the likes are. WR-V is a crossover based on Jazz premium hatchback. And currently, it is Honda’s only offering in this cut-throat segment.
WR-V is often hailed as the cheapest car to offer an electronic sunroof. Looking at sub 4m SUV sales, WR-V is not a substantial volume product when it comes to sales. And now there’s talks that it will be phased out in the months to come due to low popularity.
Honda WR-V Crash Test
A sunroof at the lowest price point is not why WR-V is in the news recently. It is for the fact that it has scored just 1-star on Latin NCAP crash test. This proves that in terms of crashworthiness, it is at the bottom of this ladder. Surprisingly, Honda Jazz on which WR-V is based here in India, scored 4-stars when tested by Global NCAP under Safer Cars For India Campaign.
This clearly suggests that there is a major difference in the chassis and crumple zones of WR-V (or Jazz) that is produced for India and for Latin American market. As is true with market types. The same car is likely to be very different according to the market it’s sold in. At Latin NCAP crash testing, WR-V was subjected to front offset deformable barrier test at 64 km/h, side mobile barrier test at 50 km/h, pedestrian, adult and child headform, to bonnet tests at 40 km/h and pedestrian upper and lower leg form tests at 40 km/h along with whiplash and TCS tests.
Driver and passenger head and neck protection were good, while chest showed adequate protection and knees showed marginal protection as they can impact dangerous structures behind the fascia. Driver tibias showed adequate protection and passenger tibias showed good protection. Footwell and bodyshell were rated as stable.
When it comes to side impact, head, abdomen and pelvis protection was good and chest protection was marginal. While side Pole Impact was not performed as the car does not offer side head protection as standard. Whiplash test showed good protection to adult neck. It scores 41 percent in terms of Adult protection.
Child and Pedestrian Protection
Child seats were used to measure child protection hooked to ISOFIX mounts. WR-V offered good protection against side impact. WR-V offers 3-point belts in all seating positions as standard in all versions. It earned just 14.64 points in dynamic score out of 24 points while CRS installation score was just 5.28 out of 12 and 0 in vehicle assessment score. In total, Latin spec WR-V scores 41 percent in child occupant safety.
Latin-spec WR-V scores full marks in upper and lower leg impact tests when it comes to pedestrian protection. When it comes to head impact, it scores 16.23 out of 24 and in total, scores 59 percent. When it comes to safety assist systems, it scores 49 percent.
With disparity like this in vehicles offered in different markets, crash testing needs to be made mandatory. Tucson in Euro NCAP scores 5-stars while in Latin NCAP, scores 0-stars. Crash tests like these make people aware of what they’re getting into or how a car fares in their market. India being the 5th largest automotive market in the world, government has shown interest in mandating Bharat NCAP crash tests.
