Mahindra Scorpio N Fails To Put Up A Score In Australian NCAP, What Went Wrong?

Mahindra made headlines with the new Scorpio N when it was first tested for the global NCAP back in December 2022, where it scored a full 5-star rating. Fast forward one year and the Indian SUV is making headlines again but for all the wrong reasons. See, the SUV has just been crash tested by ANCAP but has received a brutal score of drop dead zero stars. So how does the same car score such different scores under different regulations? Let’s find out:

Let’s rewind a bit to set a bit of context. The Government of Australia had made Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), one of the chief advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), a mandate for all new cars in the country post March 1, 2023. But there was a loophole in the regulations, which only required the vehicles to be approved for sale or basically get registered for sale from or post March 1 2023 to have this safety kit installed.

As a result, Mahindra made full use of the loophole and registered the Scorpio N before that date, even though units were still far away from the dealerships. But that loophole has caught up to them in the form of a zero star safety rating granted by the ANCAP.  Let’s take a look at the scores and the logic behind them:

Adult occupant protection

ANCAP rated the Scorpio N 17.67 out of 40 points (44 percent) for adult occupant protection. The passenger compartment was rated as stable in the frontal offset test, but the full width frontal test reported weak protection for the driver’s chest and poor protection for the rear passenger’s head, neck and chest. But rest of the areas in this test were rated fine by Australian NCAP. 

The side impact test scored full marks, while the oblique pole test too was close to a full score (5.31 out of 6). But the far side impact test was given a zero point rating out of a possible 4. ANCAP also noted that the front seats indicated poor protection from whiplash injury in rear crash scenarios. 

Child occupant protection

ANCAP rated the Scorpio N 39.27 out of 49 points (80 percent) for child occupant protection. In the frontal offset test, the 10 year old dummy got a marginal safety rating for the neck and chest, while the rest for both the dummies was rated good. The side impact test also revealed a good safety rating for both child dummies. 

Despite the decent rating, ANCAP issued a notice reading “Top tether anchorages are not fitted to the centre seating position in the second row of seven-seat variants, or the third row of any variant. Installation of child restraints in these seating positions is not recommended as there are no top tether anchorages. This vehicle is not suitable for transporting young 

children in these seating positions”

Vulnerable road user protection

The Scorpio N was given a 23% safety rating (14.94 out of 63) under the vulnerable road user protection section. ANCAP rated the protection offered by the bonnet to the head of a pedestrian as marginal or adequate. They recorded weak or poor results on the front of the bonnet and on the base of the windscreen and the stiff pillars.

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Protection to the pelvis, femurs, and lower legs was also rated poor and ANCAP was also quick to point out the missing autonomous emergency braking (AEB), which led to a few tests being not conducted.

Safety assist

Given that there isn’t any form of ADAS features onboard the Scorpio N, ANCAP rated the SUV 0 out of 18 under the safety assist section.

What do you think of the discrepancy, given that the Scorpio N nailed the Global NCAP crash test and had scored a full five star rating? Just because it doesn’t have autonomous functions, which sometimes don’t even work in the intended way, we reckon the scores of the ANCAP might be a bit too harsh for the SUV, especially because, at its core, the Scorpio N is in fact a safe and well engineered vehicle.

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That said, Mahindra will introduce ADAS features on the Scorpio N, once the feature becomes an absolute compulsion on all cars sold from 2025 onwards, irrespective of the time they were registered on. Currently, the XUV700 is the only Mahindra offering in India to boast autonomous driving capabilities.