Safety body Euro NCAP has named its safest cars of 2021, and two of the five are made by Skoda.
A total of 33 cars were put through the stringent crash-test programme throughout the year, and 22 of them achieved a top five-star safety rating. Now the five best-in-class awards have been handed out, presented to those cars which performed best overall in categories with at least three entrants that year.
As well as achieving a five-star rating, to qualify for the best-in-class prize the tested cars must have had have no critical body region coloured red during the test programme.
The Skoda Enyaq iV took the large off-roader award with the BMW iX named runner-up, while the Skoda Fabia was named the top small family car, with no runner-up declared.
Electric cars featured heavily in the final line-up with the Mercedes-Benz EQS taking the best executive car award ahead of the Polestar 2, and both cars also wrapping up the pure electric car category.
Other winners included the Nissan Qashqai, which took the small off-roader award ahead of the Volkswagen ID.4, and the Toyota Yaris Cross which was named best small MPV ahead of the Volkswagen Caddy.
Announcing the awards, Euro NCAP Secretary General Michiel van Ratingen described 2021 as a tough year for the car industry, due to a shortage of parts, semiconductors in particular, which followed the Covid crisis and affected development timelines, production and sales.
“Still, we saw quite a number of new car models coming to the market, many of them electric or hybrid, and many of them achieving five-star ratings despite the demanding requirements,” van Ratingen added. “Well done to the winners as well as to the runners-up, some of which were very close contenders for the top slot in their respective categories.”
