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Carsales Staff26 Feb 2018
NEWS

Mercedes-Benz X-Class first ute with AEB

Five-star safety rating for first luxury ute to adopt autonomous emergency braking across the range

The Mercedes-Benz X-Class ute marks a new milestone for the ute segment in Australia, offering AEB (autonomous emergency braking) as standard across the range.

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) has released the latest round of results for four new vehicles in Australia, including the highly-anticipated Mercedes-Benz X-Class ute.

Arriving in April 2018, the Mercedes-Benz X-Class is the first ute in Australia to get AEB and, after testing in Europe back in November 2017, has been awarded top marks, five-stars, by EuroNCAP.

Mercedes-Benz X-Class

Three other new cars were also rated by the crash-test authority in the same round of testing, the BMW X2, Jaguar E-PACE and Volkswagen Polo all nabbing five-star safety scores.

While the Mercedes-Benz always touted the X-Class as the world's safest ute, the Nissan Navara-based vehicle only scored 72 per cent in the safest-assist category.

ANCAP noted that although it features a lane-departure warning system above 60km/h, "An active lane keep assist (LKA) system is not available".

Mercedes-Benz doesn't offer an active lane keep assist function on any of the models in Australia, even top-shelf V6 diesel variants, which is offered in the Ford Ranger. However every model in the X-Class range in Australia comes standard with lane departure warning.

Mercedes-Benz X-Class

The models tested were the 2.3-litre turbo-diesel Mercedes X-Class variants, which also lost points because they lack a speed-limit information system.

In all other categories the X-Class performed strongly, with 90 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for child occupant protection and 80 per cent for pedestrian protection. However, given the ute was tested in 2017, it was not exposed to the more stringent testing regime in place since the beginning of this year.

ANCAP chief executive, James Goodwin, observed that Mercedes-Benz X-Class ute's high level of safety specification with AEB will be a win for consumers and the market segment overall.

Mercedes-Benz X-Class

"This is a game-changer for the ute market and puts pressure on competing brands.

"The light commercial vehicle segment has generally lagged passenger cars and SUVs with regard to safety specification, so the inclusion of AEB as standard across the X-Class range is to be commended," said Goodwin.

New vehicles tested by ANCAP cannot get a five-star safety rating without AEB if tested in 2018 and onward.

The new Volkswagen Polo coming to Australia from early March 2018 got an excellent adult occupant protection score of 96 per cent, but scored only 59 per cent on safety-assist features. It gets AEB as standard but has no lane support systems.

Volkswagen Polo

The BMW X2 "also provides a safe choice for adult and child occupants and pedestrians with the standard inclusion of an active bonnet, automatic emergency call function and fatigue detection system," stated Goodwin.

The ANCAP boss also heaped praise on the new Jaguar E-PACE SUV but noted that "Lower leg protection for the driver in the frontal offset crash scenario could however be improved."

For full break downs of the safety ratings across the four latest vehicles to be tested, check out ANCAP.

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Written byCarsales Staff
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