ANCAP awards Infiniti Q30 five-star rating

THE Infiniti Q30 that arrives in Australian showrooms later this month has been awarded a five-star rating from safety watchdog Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), testing strongly in pedestrian and child occupant protection.

The Q30 scored 33 out of 36 points in the pedestrian protection test for a score of 91 per cent, with ANCAP noting that the Q30’s active bonnet gave either ‘adequate’ or ‘good’ protection to the head and legs of pedestrians.

However it was let down in the whiplash protection category, scoring 1.47 out of three thanks to ‘marginal’ front protection and ‘poor’ rear protection.

It scored 74 per cent in the safety assist category that measures safety features fitted to the car, helped by the inclusion of autonomous emergency braking (AEB) as standard, as well as perfect scores for seatbelt reminders and electronic stability control (ESC).

However, it was hurt by Infiniti’s decision not to include safety features such as blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control and lane support systems as standard, instead only offering them on higher-specced variants.

It scored 84 per cent in the adult occupant protection test, acing the side impact test and achieving a near-perfect 7.99 out of eight for the frontal offset test, while being let down by the whiplash test.

ANCAP CEO James Goodwin said he was satisfied with the performance of the soon-to-be -launched Q30 hatch.

“This model performed well across the range of demanding physical crash tests,” he said.

“The human body can only withstand certain amounts of force in a crash, so it is vital that the bulk of crash forces are absorbed by the vehicle rather than its occupants.” The Q30 comes with dual frontal, side, head and knee airbags as standard, and scored 86 per cent on the child occupant protection test.

The Q50 is the only other Infiniti model tested by ANCAP, which also achieved a five-star rating when it was tested in January 2014.

The launch of the Q30 is part of Infiniti’s significant product push for 2016, with the QX30 crossover hatch, refreshed Q50 mid-sizer and Q60 coupe all set to be launched by the premium Japanese brand this year.