ANCAP conundrum for Hyundai i30 sedan

HYUNDAI Motor Company Australia (HMCA) has introduced a range of new safety technologies and equipment to its updated i30 sedan range, and it appears the importer is hopeful that the new version will be crash tested – but, the company says, it will not be footing the bill. 

With the arrival this month of hybrid variants, the current ‘untested’ status of the i30 sedan means that fleet customers and rideshare drivers that would usually flock to this type of car may have to disregard it from their consideration lists.

As such, it would appear sensible for HMCA to want testing to go ahead on the vehicle.

However, there is a catch in that a lot of ANCAP ratings are based on Euro NCAP testing with local criteria applied and the i30 sedan, which is also known as the Elantra or Avante in other markets, will not be sold or crash-tested in Europe.

The facelifted i30 sedan includes a vast array of standard safety tech across the model range and HMCA general manager of corporate communications Bill Thomas told GoAuto that the company will not give i30 sedans to the safety watchdog to test for free.

“ANCAP may decide to crash test the car in Australia, in which case we will fully cooperate with that,” said Mr Thomas. “If ANCAP would like to crash test it, then that’s not an issue for us.”

The implications of the i30 sedan lacking an ANCAP rating are clear – it could be ruled out of fleet considerations in the case that those customers have a stipulation around the purchase of vehicles with that rating, and could also lead to the vehicle being ruled out by rideshare businesses like Uber.

Ridesharing giant Uber’s policy stipulates that all vehicles used for transporting passengers (not including the Uber Eats delivery service) must have a five-star ANCAP safety rating or, for luxury vehicles, the overseas equivalent.

Uber also maintains a list of unrated vehicles, compiled through regular consultation with ANCAP, that are still eligible for passenger transport purposes. But GoAuto understands that Uber will also exclude a vehicle from the exemption list if the manufacturer or importer declines to submit it for ANCAP testing, suggesting that the ship has already sailed for the i30 sedan.

HMCA’s intonation that the safety watchdog should pay for the cars – typically seven or eight vehicles – to do its job is exactly what happened when ANCAP conducted local tests for the Palisade large SUV that like the i30 sedan is not sold in Europe.

ANCAP put the Palisade through its protocols once in pre-update form (which got a four-star result) and again in current guise in 2022, where it achieved the maximum five-star rating.

The Australasian crash-test specialist typically relies heavily upon the Euro NCAP scheme, as the brand’s 2021-22 financials show. In that period, there was a record $5.46 million worth of tests and vehicles “contributed by vehicle brands”. 

Data from ANCAP shows the 59 tests conducted totalled $3.43 million, with $2.03 million worth of vehicles provided by manufacturers and importers. 

ANCAP says brands typically will supply cars if they want them to be tested.

“The majority of vehicle manufacturers provide vehicles to ANCAP for testing,” an ANCAP spokesperson told GoAuto.

“ANCAP generally purchases test vehicles where manufacturers are not actively seeking a rating, and these tend to be models that are unlikely to offer five-star levels of safety performance/specification.”

For context on the European influence on current vehicle safety ratings here, the brand’s 2021-22 figures show that it conducted just 14 tests at its own cost, including the purchase of the cars for those tests ($1,185,000), while the 59 tests mentioned above funded by vehicle brands (with cars supplied to ANCAP) worked out at $5,457,000, and Euro NCAP testing totalled $18,483,000.

ANCAP points out that recent examples of brands not supplying vehicles for testing aligned with the notion that those vehicles may not score well. A more sceptical reading of that would be that ANCAP will only spend the money to do the testing if it knows the headlines will be worth it. 

Furthering that argument is that the most recent examples of ANCAP-purchased models for testing are:

• Mahindra Scorpio (0 star)

• MG 5 (0 star)

• Hyundai Palisade (four stars)

• Mitsubishi Express (0 star)

• Hyundai Venue (four stars)

Whether Hyundai is smarting at the prospect of another imperfect rating (the new-generation Kona was granted four stars based on Euro NCAP testing) or not, the facelifted i30 sedan line-up does boast new technology, including features such as autonomous emergency braking with car, motorcycle, pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, and the much-maligned speed limit recognition system, which has been panned by reviewers as “annoying” and “frustrating”. 

The overzealous warning technology, which is supposed to read speed signs and warn the driver of the speed limit of their immediate surroundings, has been found to repeatedly misread signage but still warn the driver of a change of speed limit, and fails to recognise time-of-day signage such as school zones. In these instances, if driving through a school zone at 11pm, the system will still beep at the driver because they are doing more than 40km/h.

Mr Thomas said the implementation of such tech is something the brand is consciously concerned about, but that for some customers it actually is beneficial, particularly when driving in unfamiliar areas. 

“We do know that it’s not all bad from a customer perspective,” he said. “It’s not a big deal for most people. Although we can be critical as enthusiasts, especially as media.”

Feedback around the system, which is designed to meet European safety legislation (as distinct from Euro NCAP ratings requirements), has been shared within the company.

HMCA product planning and development manager Tim Rodgers said: “What you write does count – we can take that back to R&D and show them, this is what the consumers and the media are saying.”

The new Hyundai i30 sedan hybrid range is offered in three different trim grades, all of which have the speed-sign recognition system, which defaults to on whenever the car is started.

Entry-level variants, however, have a different means of disabling the system via steering wheel controls for the 4.2-inch driver info screen, whereas in the higher grade models, more driver attention is required through use of the touchscreen media system to disable it (via several taps of the screen).

The new i30 Sedan hybrid starts from $33,000 before on-road costs (or a national drive-away price of $35,990), with its petrol-electric hybrid powertrain offering a return of 3.8L/100km and just 92g/km of CO2 emissions on the combined cycle.

Elite and Premium hybrid models will arrive later this year, and pricing is still to be confirmed.