Honda dominated at the recently concluded New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN NCAP) Grand Prix Awards 2014 among 18 participating car manufacturers. Honda received 5 awards in the Crash Worthiness Performance category and 1 award in the Safety Technology category for the Honda LanWatch technology. The All New City was recognized as the overall winner for Adult Occupant Protection (AOP).

Adult Occupant Protection

• Overall: Honda City
• Small Family Category: Honda City
• SUV Category: Honda CR-V

Child Occupant Protection

• Medium Family Category: Honda Civic
• SUV Category: Honda CR-V

The ASEAN New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) is a new addition to the NCAP entities around the world, which targets to enhance safety standards, raise consumer awareness and thus encourage a market for safer vehicles in the Southeast Asia region. These awards mark yet another milestone for Honda; as it continuously puts effort to set a benchmark for vehicle safety.

Committed to provide excellent vehicle safety, Honda R&D centers in Japan are two of the world’s most advanced indoor crash safety research facilities – the world’s first indoor multi-directional crash-test safety facility and an Automotive Safety Research Facility.

The Honda indoor crash test safety facility enables Honda to conduct crash tests from various directions, at different speeds, and between vehicles of different sizes. In fact, all Honda models have been put through vigorous testings for frontal, side and rear crash at the facility. This multi-directional test capability is the key to better understand, design, and protect against the consequences of real-world collisions.

Besides the multi-directional crash tests, Honda was also the first automaker in the world to develop pedestrian crash test dummies. These dummies are designed to replicate the behavior of the human body in a collision to help with analyzing the effects accidents have on the human body and with identifying locations of damage to vehicles.

Both R&D centers are able to provide Honda with a deeper understanding of what happens in real-world collisions as the basis for developing new technologies that enhance safety. This is a strong reflection of Honda’s commitment in providing safety for everyone—that means crash protection not only for its own drivers and passengers, but also for the occupants of other vehicles, and injury mitigation for pedestrians.

Locally, Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI) has always emphasized passenger safety as one of its key priorities in vehicle development. Evidently, its vehicles have always been infused with the latest vehicle safety systems and technology. While high-end safety systems such as Anti-lock Brake System with Electronic Brake-Force Distribution (ABS with EBD) and the Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) were features that were once reserved for high displacement models, HCPI has been including these features even in their subcompact models.

In 2012, HCPI offered their 1.5 City ENC model with these features together with Dual (driver and passenger) SRS airbags, ISOFIX international standard for fastening child seats, 60:40 split folding rear seats and seatbelt reminder for both driver and front passenger. This made the Honda City one of the pioneers to introduce a model (locally) that gets a 5-star ASEAN NCAP safety rating for adult occupant protection, the highest safety rating possible.

Fast forward to 2014, HCPI partakes in realizing Honda’s dream of a collision-free mobile society where customers and everyone sharing the road, can safely and confidently enjoy the freedom of mobility. Dedicated to implement safety improvements through vehicle technologies, HCPI’s recent products are equipped with standard dual SRS airbags and abs with EBD (across vehicle line-up), higher end variants starting with the All New City come with new safety technologies and enhancements such as Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA), Multi-angle Rear View Camera Display, Emergency Stop Signal, Side Airbags and Side Curtain Airbags. As a result, all vehicles in Honda’s current line-up are 4-star ASEAN NCAP compliant while certain variants of the City, Jazz, and Civic with Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) and seatbelt reminder are 5-star ASEAN NCAP compliant.