Maruti Suzuki e Vitara Gets 4 Stars for Safety in Australia, Following 5 Star BNCAP Assessment

The Maruti Suzuki e Vitara, which is manufactured in India and exported and sold in multiple other countries as the Suzuki e Vitara, has just been awarded a four-star safety rating by ANCAP, the Australasian New Car Assessment Programme. Analogous to India’s BNCAP, ANCAP has a different testing regimen customised for local market requirements, with its own parameters to determine how scores and star ratings are calculated. Additionally, the Suzuki e Vitara on sale there differs from its Indian counterpart in terms of equipment and tuning.

While BNCAP awards separate adult and child occupant protection scores, ANCAP test programme scores cars on the basis of four stages, ie safe driving (seatbelt usage monitoring, driving controls); crash avoidance (pedestrian and cyclist protection, lane departure collisions); crash protection (frontal, side, and rear impact), and post-crash (intervention, extrication).

The e Vitara was considered quite capable in most aspects of safety, but its overall rating suffered because it does not come with a centre airbag to reduce occupant head injuries in the case of side impact crashes. The e Vitara got full marks in the side impact and oblique pole crash tests, offering Good protection to all body parts. However, driver chest protection was rated Weak, and rear passenger head protection was Marginal in the full-width frontal crash impact test. All other body regions got a Good score.

Child occupant protection was rated Good for all critical body parts, for both the 6-year-old
and 10-year-old test dummies, with the e Vitara getting full marks in the frontal offset and side impact tests. Child restraints are available for all rear seats, but there’s no child presence detection.

Although the overall adult occupant protection score lagged a little at 31/40 or 71 percent, other ratings were strong. Child occupant protection was rated 43/49, or 87 percent. The Vulnerable Road User Protection score came in at 50.34/63, or 79 percent, while Safety Assist was 12.78/18 or 71 percent.

In India, BNCAP awarded the e Vitara five stars with scores of 31.49/32 for adult occupant protection and 43/49 for child occupant protection. The e Vitara also received a four-star Euro NCAP rating when it was tested there in September last year.

Dual frontal, side chest-protecting, and side head-protecting airbags, as well as a driver knee airbag, are standard for the e Vitara in Australia. It also features autonomous emergency braking (Car-to-Car, Vulnerable Road User, Junction & Crossing and Head-On), but not AEB - Backover for detecting pedestrians when reversing. Lane keep assist (LKA), lane departure warning (LDW), and emergency lane-keeping (ELK) as well as speed sign recognition are also standard on all variants.

In a statement, ANCAP CEO Carla Hoorweg said, “It’s encouraging to see improvements in safety performance across the market, this latest rating achieved by the e Vitara is evidence Suzuki can produce a model that offers sound levels of safety performance”. She added, “These outcomes show that higher levels of safety are within reach, and that continued focus on delivering consistent performance across all areas is key to achieving the highest rating.”

The four-star rating applies to all variants of the e Vitara on sale in Australia and New Zealand, and is valid from March 2026 to December 2031.