Made-in-India Volkswagen Virtus Gets Top Marks In Latin NCAP

Its bodyshell was rated as ‘stable’ and capable of withstanding further loadings

Volkswagen’s newest made-in-India compact sedan, the Virtus, has just been put through the Latin NCAP crash tests, and it passed with flying colours, i.e. a five-star rating. Although there’s no word on its Global NCAP crash test score yet, we can expect a similar result for the India-spec model as well.

Safety Equipment On Board

The VW sedan that was crash tested was equipped with six airbags and electronic stability control (ESC) as standard. Other safety features on board the made-in-India Virtus include ISOFIX child seat anchorages, hill-hold assist, a tyre pressure monitor, and a reversing camera. It was also equipped with AEB (automatic emergency braking) in its Latin specification, not as standard, and that feature is not offered on the Indian sedan.

ADULT OCCUPANT PROTECTION

The sedan scored 92.35 percent (36.94 points) in adult occupation protection. This includes the overall scores from both frontal and side-impact crash tests.

Frontal Impact

The protection offered to the driver and passenger’s head and neck was ‘good’, while the driver´s chest showed ‘adequate’ protection and the passenger chest showed ‘good’ protection. The driver and passenger´s knees showed ‘good’ protection. While the driver’s tibias and passenger’s left tibia showed ‘adequate’ protection, the passenger’s right tibia was deemed to offer ‘good’ protection. The Virtus’ footwell area and bodyshell were rated as ‘stable’ with the latter capable of withstanding further loadings.

Side Impact

In the side-impact test, the protection offered to the head, abdomen and pelvis was ‘good’, while that for the chest was recorded to be ‘adequate.’

Side Pole Impact

The Virtus, in the side pole impact, was stated to offer ‘good’ protection to the head, abdomen and pelvis, while its chest protection was ‘marginal.’

Also Read: Volkswagen Taigun Gets A Full Score In Global NCAP Crash Tests

CHILD OCCUPANT PROTECTION

The Virtus got 91.84 percent in child occupant protection. Here’s its breakdown:

Frontal Impact

Both child seats for the three-year old and the one-and-a-half-year old dummies were installed rearward facing using ISOFIX anchorages. It was capable of preventing head exposure and offered ‘good’ protection for the three-year old. The younger child’s seat provided full protection to the head too.

Side Impact

Both the child restraint systems (CRS) were able to offer full protection during the side impact. The VW sedan has ISOFIX anchorages as standard and meets all the necessary marking requirements. All seating positions are equipped with three-point seatbelts.

PEDESTRIAN PROTECTION

The Virtus obtained a comparatively lower result of 53.09 percent (25.48 points) in pedestrian protection. Volkswagen’s compact sedan showed the majority of areas with ‘good’, ‘marginal’ and ‘adequate’ protection levels. It lost most of its potential score due to the upper leg protection, where performance was overall ‘weak’; lower leg protection, however, was deemed to be ‘good.’

SAFETY ASSIST

The Latin NCAP’s crash test result showed 84.98 percent (36.54 points) for the safety assist of the sedan. Volkswagen has equipped the sedan with seatbelt reminders in all seating positions and ESC as standard. Although the tested model didn’t have the full suite of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), it did feature autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and forward-collision warning (FCW) which helped in its overall ‘safety assist’ performance. These ADAS features are not offered on the India-spec Virtus.

Also Read: Kerala Family Reaches Qatar In Toyota Innova To Watch Fifa World Cup

Virtus In India

The VW sedan has been on sale in India since June 2022 and is offered in two broad trims: Dynamic Line and Performance Line. While it only comes with dual front airbags as standard, it will likely soon be updated to also offer six airbags as standard as seen in its Latin specification. Volkswagen currently retails the Virtus between Rs 11.32 lakh and Rs 18.42 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

Read More on : Virtus on road price