Since the beginning of the year the Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) has issued several 5 star safety ratings.

The first vehicle to be awarded 5 stars was the Hyundai Tucson. The rating applies to all Tucson variants built from 17 November 2015 in South Korea and 16 December 2015 in the Czech Republic when several safety-related improvements were introduced. 2015 model Tucsons built prior to these dates either have a 4 star ANCAP rating (2.0 litre GDi variant) or be unrated.

The Lexus RX also achieved 5 stars with an ‘impressive list’ of standard safety features.

The Lexus RX was introduced to Australia and New Zealand in October 2015 and the ANCAP rating applies to all variants.

“The RX joins a competitive SUV market and offers a range of safety assist technologies as standard, including AEB, lane support system and reverse collision avoidance,” ANCAP CEO James Goodwin said.

“These new technologies can help avoid a crash in the first place and so we would urge consumers to look for a car with not only good structural performance, but with features to potentially prevent a collision.”

Most recently, ANCAP issued a 5 star safety rating to the Mercedes-Benz GLC and the Jaguar XE, after they were launched with a suite of advanced safety features as standard.

“These vehicles further demonstrate we are entering a new era of vehicle safety where the standard inclusion of safety assist technologies such as Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) will help to eliminate or reduce the severity of a crash,” James Goodwin said.

“With a concerning 7.9 per cent increase in pedestrian fatalities across Australia in 2015 there needs to be a strong focus on vehicle technology to help contribute to reducing this figure.”