Early in 2021, the Global New Car Assessment Programme, the worldwide authority on vehicle safety and crash testing, announced that Mahindra’s XUV300 compact SUV is the safest car that it has ever tested for Africa and South Africa.
The XUV300 set a new benchmark with a full five-star crash-test rating, with a score of 16.42 out of 17. This earned Mahindra and its XUV300 the GNCAP’s coveted Safer Choice Award and place the brand and its XUV300 at the top of the #SaferCarsForAfrica and #SaferCarsForIndia rankings.
You can read more about the #SaferCarsForAfrica rankings here: http://www.globalncap.org/safercarsforafrica/
About Mahindra
You no doubt know Mahindra from its range of durable, desirable and affordable sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and bakkies, but did you know that Mahindra has been the best-selling volume brand for two of the last three years?
Mahindra South Africa is part of the global Mahindra Group, which employs over 250 000 people across 100 countries. It is a global player in many different industries, including vehicle design and manufacturing, power generation, IT and telecommunication, finance, agriculture and logistics.
In South Africa, Mahindra assembles the full range of Pik Up models from its assembly facility in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, while its headquarters are in Centurion, Gauteng. From here, Mahindra supports its national network of dealers, its farming division, its construction equipment division and its Powerol business, which manufactures world-class generators. In fact, Mahindra South Africa is considered Mahindra’s second global home, outside of India.
Mahindra and vehicle safety
As a global vehicle brand with factories across the world, Mahindra takes vehicle and road safety very seriously.
Every vehicle is tested by global safety authorities, like the GNCAP, and Mahindra uses this as a benchmark for all the new products that it develops at Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai and elsewhere.
The new Mahindra XUV300 is a perfect example of this commitment to vehicle safety. It not only achieved the highest crash-test rating ever by the GNCAP, but it also achieved a four-star rating for child safety.
Other vehicles in the Mahindra range have equally exemplary safety ratings. The XUV500 received a four-star rating from the Australian New Car Assessment Programme (ANCAP) and recently the all-new Thar, which is due in South Africa in 2021, received a four-star crash-test rating from the GNCAP, the highest ever for an off-road vehicle with body-on-frame construction.
Vehicle safety is not only a design consideration but also part of the company’s DNA. In India, Mahindra staff donated 17 337 hours of community service in 2019 specifically for road safety initiatives, and in South Africa, the company has partnered with Arrive Alive and its network of vehicle dealers to drive a road safety awareness campaign.
Read more about Mahindra’s commitment to road safety here.
The Mahindra XUV300
The XUV300 is the GNCAP flag-bearer for affordable vehicles that have a high level of safety.
You can watch the GNCAP crash test of the XUV300 here: https://youtu.be/CO17AWugin4
Following its tests, the GNCAP noted that the Mahindra XUV300 was very well designed, with its body shell remaining intact and able to withstand even greater impacts. This not only points to the impressive build quality of the Mahindra XUV300 but also points to its world-class design, which has created a vehicle that disperses the impact of a crash from the front or side away from the occupants.
The GNCAP also noted that the most basic version of the XUV300 was tested. This means that the XUV300 that received the full five-star crash test rating had two airbags, ABS-brakes with electronic brake-force distribution and disk brakes on all four wheels.
Mahindra has a policy of creating a high level of vehicle safety for every model, regardless of its price or specifications. For instance, every Pik Up that is assembled in South Africa, from the entry-level single cab to the S11 Automatic Double Cab Karoo Pik Up, has at least two airbags and ABS-brakes as standard.
The same applies to the entry-level KUV100 NXT, while higher specification level models of ranges such as the XUV300 have up to seven airbags and vehicle stability control in addition to the standard range of active and passive safety equipment.
You can learn more about the XUV300 here: https://mahindra.co.za/cars/xuv300/
