LATIN NCAP Writes to GM as Chevy Aveo Gets '0' Star Rating in Crash Tests

Kuala Lumpur: As the Chevrolet Aveo has scored a '0' star rating in the recently concluded Latin NCAP crash test results, Maria Fernanda Rodriguez, the President of the Board of Latin NCAP, has sent a letter to GM CEO Mary Barra. In the letter, the Latin NCAP Chief has requested General Motors “to confirm the immediate standard fitment of airbags in the Aveo in Mexico” and "to remove  all zero-star cars from GM’s global product range”, stating that it's simply unacceptable in 2015 for a global manufacturer like GM to be producing “zero-star” cars.

The crash test was conducted on a left-hand drive 4-door sedan model of Chevrolet Aveo with no airbags as sold in the Mexican market and the car performed extremely poorly in a 40mph frontal impact test. According to Latin NCAP, the car's bodyshell is unstable and the lack of airbags has led to dummy readings showing a high risk of life-threatening injury.

The Chevrolet Aveo is the top-selling car in Mexico, despite being sold without airbags.

On November 16, this year, Latin New Car Assessment Programme (Latin NCAP) released six new crash test results for the Latin America and the Caribbean region. While Honda got five-star ratings for all its three tested vehicles (the HR-V, City and Fit), the Chevrolet Aveo scored a '0' star rating. After the recently concluded crash tests, Latin NCAP has also published its first ranking of the comparative safety performance for the automakers in the Latin American Market. The average star rating awarded to each automaker was calculated on the basis of all models evaluated since 2010. Based on adult occupant protection results, Chevrolet sat in 9th place with an average of 1.8 stars, just ahead of Chinese automakers JAC, Chery, Geely and Lifan.

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