Star-crossed: Cupra Tavascan fails to nab full five stars for safety in latest round of ANCAP testing
The new 2025 Cupra Tavascan has suffered a humiliating defeat in the latest round of Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) crash testing with the Spanish brand’s flagship EV failing to get top marks for safety.
In a highly competitive mid-size electric SUV segment where the full five-out-of-five stars for safety is the norm, the Cupra Tavascan missed out on the final sparkler because it lacks both an intelligent speed limiter and traffic sign recognition.
Until then, the Cupra Tavascan was on track for a decent outing in the independent safety body’s test after racking up an impressive 89 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for child occupant protection, and 80 per cent for pedestrian impact.
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Where it went wrong for the Spanish Tesla Model Y rival was when it came to its driver assist safety systems score, with the Tavascan only scoring a lowly 67 per cent for its onboard tech – three per cent off the 70 per cent mandatory score needed for the full five stars.
The latest four-star rating conflicts with the 2024 Euro NCAP judgement that saw the Cupra Tavascan awarded the full five stars for protection because in Europe the tech missing on our cars is standard.
Commenting on the Tavascan’s four-star rating, ANCAP CEO Carla Hoorweg said:
“While some improved performance across the Safety Assist pillar could have enhanced its score, the absence of an advanced speed assistance system primarily contributed to this four-star result.
“Speed sign recognition and an intelligent speed limiter are standard in European models but have not been made available to current Australian Tavascan buyers.
“The Tavascan performed well in each of the other areas of assessment, and we encourage Cupra to consider an update to Australian vehicles to elevate it to the five-star level of its European equivalents.”
Responding to the four-star rating in a highly competitive mid-size electric SUV segment where a five-star rating is commonplace, a statement from Cupra said:
“The Tavascan comfortably exceeds five-star requirements in three of the four segments, including segments crucial to driver and passenger safety such as Adult Occupant Protection, Child Occupant Protection and Vulnerable Road User Protection.
“In the fourth segment, Driver Assist, the Tavascan fulfilled or exceeded all requirements with the single exception of a speed limit information function.”
Cupra added that it “welcomes independent testing of its safety systems on real roads.”
Even though it missed two key driver assist features, ANCAP still went ahead and praised the Tavascan’s autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system for showing “consistent performance when responding to pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists in a range of collision avoidance scenarios, where it successfully mitigated or avoided collisions”.
Although it was a glowing review of the Cupra’s driver assist aids, ANCAP went on to note the AEB didn’t detect pedestrians while reversing and the exit assist warning alerted occupants too late. Both performances were judged ‘poor’.
As standard the 2025 Cupra Tavascan also gets blind-spot assist, lane-keep assist, rear cross-traffic alert and an adaptive cruise control that includes lane centring and a low-speed traffic jam assist.
There’s no word if the intelligent speed limiter plus traffic sign recognition are planned to be added later for the full five stars.
