The Volvo XC60 SUV has been crowned the safest car of 2017 in the Euro NCAP 2017 Best in Class Safety awards.
The annual Euro NCAP awards were split into six categories for 2017, with the Volvo XC60 announced as both the best performing large off-roader and the car with the best overall safety performance.
The European vehicle safety organisation called 2017 its busiest year ever assessing nearly 70 models, most of which were new cars to the market and featured models expected to land in New Zealand by the end of 2018.
The XC60 claimed overall honors with a near-perfect 98 per cent saftey rating in the Adult Occupant category. And in its Large Off-Road class, the SUV showed a clear advantage in Safety Assist with a score of 95 per cent – 20 percentage points higher than the nearest Large Off-Road competitor.
Read our local Volvo XC60 preview
Malin Ekholm, Vice President of Volvo Cars Safety Centre said the new XC60 is one of the safest cars the company has ever made.
“It is fully loaded with new technology designed to assist drivers, to help protect vehicle occupants and other road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists, plus mitigate collision risks," said Ekholm.
"We are proud that our ongoing commitment to innovating new safety features has been recognised with another Euro NCAP Best in Class award for Volvo Cars.”
Despite missing out on the top award, Volkswagen vehicles won half of the best-in-class awards on offer.
The Volkswagen Arteon sedan won the Executive class award, and the all-new T-Roc crossover and Polo hatchback claimed honors in the Small Off-Road and Supermini categories respectively, a result praised by Euro NCAP's secretary general Michael van Ratingen.
"To win best-in-class in three different categories is a great achievement and underlines the company’s commitment to providing the highest levels of safety to its customers," said van Ratingen.
The Small Family Car category was jointly awarded to the Subaru VX and Impreza, both of which scored hightly in Adult and Child Occupant safety as well as Pedestrian protection.
Read our Subaru Impreza Road Test
Rounding out the winners was the Opel/Vauxhall Crossland X (only available in the UK) with the Small MPV category award.
"Subaru and Opel are also offering class-leading products while Volvo continues to underline its reputation for safety," said van Ratingen.
"More broadly, though, it is encouraging to see so many new cars performing so well in all areas of safety, and being equipped with greater and greater levels of life-saving technology.”