Audi’s new A1 light passenger hatch has scored an academic five star safety rating under tighter testing criteria.
The Australasian New Car Assessment Program has donned the micro-Audi with an impressive 95% in adult occupant protection, which applies to all variants in both Australian and New Zealand-sold models.
The little Audi is rated as substantially the safest vehicle in the light or mirco car segment in adult occupant, child and safety assist criteria, beating its platform-sharing sibling the Volkswagen Polo on 96%, 85% and 59% in those respective tests.
However, the Polo wins on pedestrian protection (including vulnerable road user tests) with 76% compared to the Audi A1’s 73%.
The Nissan Micra also eclipses them both with 79% in pedestrian protection, as tested in 2017.
All three are a compelling option against the four-star Citroen C3’s 88% adult occupant protection, 83% child protection, 59% pedestrian protection and 58% safety assist scores in 2017 testing. The worst-performing light car model remains the four-star Kia Picanto.
ANCAP engineers scored the A1’s passenger cell as remaining “stable in the frontal offset test” where “Dummy readings indicated adequate protection of the driver’s chest and lower legs of both the driver and front passenger, with good protection offered to all other body regions.”
The A1 lost points for a “margin” chest reading on the full-width frontal test dummy at 50km/h, and ANCAP notes the convertible model’s centre child seat installation didn’t allow for one kind of rearward-facing seat or booster seat for ages 4-8 years.
The A1’s autonomous emergency braking system was also limited to marginal scores in the “child running obstructed” test where the impact speed was reduced to 24km/h but still hit the dummy, and the “adult walking along road” test in both day and night tests. All cyclist and other path-crossing AEB test scored impressively.
Marks were also lost for the lack of blind-spot monitoring or rear cross-traffic alerts in both Australian and New Zealand models, as well as no fatigue reminder/detection.
ANCAP chief executive James Goodwin was pleased overall with the pint-size Audi’s performance.
“It is encouraging to see vehicle brands prioritise collision avoidance capabilities across their model line-ups, including the smaller city cars which mix regularly with pedestrians and cyclists in addition to other vehicles,” he says.
“This is an impressive score for a vehicle in the Light Car category,” Goodwin adds.
The Audi A1 was destructively crash-tested by EuroNCAP with local input and engineering assessment from ANCAP.
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