The People Mover segment has today been given a boost, with Australasia's independent voice on vehicle safety, ANCAP, announcing a 5 star safety rating for the high-selling Kia Carnival, tested against the latest 2020-2022 rating criteria.

All variants of the eight-seat Kia Carnival achieved good scores across the range of occupant protection and collision avoidance assessment areas. The Carnival also provides a well-rounded safety specification, offering head-protecting airbags and intelligent seatbelt reminders for all three seating rows, autonomous emergency braking, active lane keeping, and fatigue monitoring as standard.

The Carnival performed particularly well for Adult Occupant Protection, with maximum points scored in the side impact and oblique pole tests, and good scores in the challenging MPDB frontal offset and full-width frontal tests. Maximum points were also awarded for Child Occupant Protection (COP) in the frontal offset and side impact tests.

As part of ANCAP's COP assessment, the ability to safely install and accommodate a range of typical child restraints is also evaluated – an important consideration given the Carnival is likely to be used by families with a number of young children. The Carnival is fitted with top tether and ISOFix anchorages for five of its six rear seating positions, giving owners a wide range of options for the installation of child restraints. The child restraint installation assessment revealed that most restraints could be fitted safely in these locations, however it was noted that one of the Type A convertible restraints could not be correctly installed in rearward-facing mode using the ISOFix anchorages in the second row outboard seats or the third seating row. In addition, the fitting of any child restraint in the third row centre position is not recommended due to the lack of top tether and ISOFix anchorages in that location.

Notably, performance testing of the autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system showed very good results with collisions avoided or mitigated in all vehicle-to-vehicle test scenarios. Similarly, the Carnival's ability to detect and react to pedestrians was Good, while cyclist detection was rated as Adequate.

"The rating for the Kia Carnival has been highly anticipated by families, fleet buyers and hire car companies, and Kia is to be congratulated for this result," said ANCAP Chief Executive Officer, Carla Hoorweg.

"Safety is critical in the People Mover segment given the primary use of these vehicles in transporting a large number of passengers. It's pleasing to see the most recent model releases to this segment, including the Carnival, have factored safety into the fundamentals of their design and specification. This is not a segment in which safety should be compromised."

"We're hopeful upcoming models in this segment slated for release later this year will also strive to offer their customers an equivalent high level of safety," Ms Hoorweg added.

Full details on the safety performance of the Kia Carnival can be viewed at: http://ancap.link/s/65409e