ANCAP Reveals: Polestar and Forester Ace, Inster Fails 5-Star

The ANCAP star ratings have been announced for the Polestar 4, Subaru Forester and Hyundai Inster. 

The Polestar 4 passed with flying colours – earning a five-star rating – and achieved full marks for driver protection in the side impact and oblique pole crash tests, adult passenger protection in the frontal offset and full width frontal crash tests, and child occupant protection in the frontal offset and side impact tests. 

The Polestar 4 also achieved the joint second-best Adult Occupant Protection score, equalling the Mazda CX-80’s score in 2024 of 92 per cent, which was only exceeded by the Toyota Camry that year. 

The Polestar 4 also benefited from its collision avoidance suite, scoring 79 per cent in the Safety Assist category. 

The Subaru Forester also scored a five-star rating, and achieved full points for driver protection in the side impact, oblique pole and full width crash tests.

The Forester scored strongly in Child Occupant Protection – scoring 91 per cent – and Vulnerable Road User Protection, achieving a score of 86 per cent.

However, the Forester fell short in terms of chest protection for second-row adult passengers in the full width crash test and – due to its asymmetrical design – head protection in passenger-side impacts. 

The Hyundai Inster scored a four-star rating, performing well in collision avoidance, but fell short notably as a result of the driver’s airbag’s effectiveness during the frontal offset test in preventing head contact with the steering wheel and poor child chest protection and the driver’s door unlatching in the side impact test. 

The Inster’s 69 per cent score in Safety Assist exceeded the threshold for a four-star score, but fell just shy of five stars.

All three vehicles were equipped with a centre airbag for front occupant protection in the event of a side impact crash. 

Additionally, ANCAP have also said that they are working with Chery over concerns raised in Euro NCAP testing regarding issues with curtain airbag deployment affecting rear-seat passengers on the left-hand drive Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 PHEV variants. 

No airbag issues were reportedly observed when the Tiggo 7 and 8 were originally tested by ANCAP in 2023, however the independent safety body is working to determine whether or not changes have been made to the Australian-spec vehicles since their original tests as well as the specification of the incoming PHEV models.

ANCAP Scores