5-Star ASEAN NCAP rating for Malaysia-bound 2022 Honda Civic FE

Safety sticklers can breathe easy: with an overall score of 83.47/100, the all-new 2021 Honda Civic (FE), nabs the maximum 5-star ASEAN NCAP rating.

The 11th-gen Civic is the first Honda model to be put through the latest ASEAN NCAP Protocol (2021-2025), which now includes motorcyclist safety as its fourth pillar.

These are the metrics tested:

• Adult Occupant Protection (AOP)
• Child Occupant Protection (COP)
• Safety Assist (SAT)
• Motorcyclist Safety (MS)

This protocol also assesses the effectiveness of autonomous emergency braking (AEB), and blind spot monitoring technology.

Which variant was tested?

Getting smashed up for science was the Civic EL+, the mid-range variant of the model in Thailand. Safety equipment for this variant includes the requisite anti-lock braking system (ABS), electronic stability control (ESC), and 6 airbags.

Honda Sensing is standard fitment for the Thai-spec car, which includes:

• Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS, better known as AEB)
• Adaptive Cruise Control with Low-Speed Follow (ACC w. LSF)
• Lane Keeping Assist (LKA)
• Lane Departure Warning (LDW)
• Road Departure Mitigation System (RDM)
• Auto High Beam (AHB)

On to the report...

Near-perfect scores for Adult and Child Occupant Protection

With its safety arsenal, the Civic excels in Adult Occupant Protection with a weighted score of 36.59/40.

Contributors to this are good scores in the Offset Deformable Barrier (ODB) front-impact crash test (14.54/16.00) and head protection technology (6.74/8.00), as well as perfect marks in side impact collision protection (8.00/8.00).

Child Occupant Protection is also top-notch in the Civic, with a near-perfect weighted score of 18.32/20 in this area. Part of this comes from the full marks it gets in frontal and side collision protection (16/16 and 8/8, respectively).

Top marks for ADAS functions

In terms of ADAS feature testing, the Civic's AEB technology proves dependable with full marks in AEB City and AEB Inter-Urban tests (2.50/2.50 and 3.50/3.50, respectively).

Other functions of its ADAS suite (tested under Advanced SATs) also net perfect scores (3.00/3.00).

Motorcylist safety scores

The Civic garnered only 2.32/8.00 points in the area of blind spot technology.

However, its auto high beam (AHB), pedestrian protection, and advanced motorcyclist safety technology (MST) scores highly.

2021 Honda Civic (FE), coming to Malaysia

Following its world debut in the United States, this latest-generation Civic is already in Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia. Malaysia will join this list, but its proposed 2021 launch here has been pushed to next year due to Covid-19 related restrictions.

Also read: Initially slated for Malaysia launch in Q3 2021, all-new Honda Civic FE is delayed

In every market its currently in, Honda Sensing is standard fitment across all variants, and this arrangement is something the Malaysian-spec car could follow.

Though its said that the Civic for our market is very likely to only come with a 1.5-litre VTEC turbo engine (dropping the naturally-aspirated, 1.8-litre mill found in the current Civic 1.8S), details are still scarce about everything else.

Also read: No more 1.8 NA? 2022 Honda Civic FE for Malaysia very likely to get 1.5 VTEC turbo only

And that's probably expected, as in the meantime Honda Malaysia is gearing up to launch the 2021 Honda City Hatchback, of which there's a few Toyota Yaris-baiting teasers already.

Also read: Malaysia launch soon: Honda City Hatchback tells Toyota Yaris to move aside