With the all-new 2022 Lexus NX being spotted in Malaysia, it’s only a matter of time before the upscale Harrier-based SUV is launched here. It’s currently on sale in Singapore and Indonesia but while we wait for announcements by Lexus Malaysia, the second-generation model has been awarded the highest safety rating in the United States.

Both the Lexus NX and NX Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) received the Top Safety Pick+ awards from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

Unlike other crash tests like the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) and the ASEAN NCAP which use a star rating system (from 0 to 5), the American IIHS uses a more simplified rating scale – Poor, Marginal, Acceptable, and Good.

Also read: ASEAN NCAP celebrates turning 10 with Toyota as the star

Good is the highest rating that is awarded and to qualify for either of IIHS’ two awards in 2022, vehicles must earn good ratings in six IIHS crashworthiness evaluations which are:

• Driver-side small overlap front
• Passenger-side small overlap front
• Moderate overlap front
• Original side
• Roof strength
• Head restraint tests

Besides those tests, the vehicles tested must be available with a front crash prevention system (AEB) that earns advanced or superior ratings in both the vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations.

The institute’s two awards are the lower-tier Top Safety Pick award which is given to vehicles that feature a good or acceptable headlight system on at least one variant. The higher-tier Top Safety Pick+ requires good or acceptable headlights to be standard on all variants.

Both the NX and NX PHEV received “Good” ratings on all six crashworthiness evaluations as well as the “Superior” rating on the front crash prevention tests with the institute giving a bonus credit for “a timely forward collision warning tone”.

As the headlight systems are featured as standard on all 3 variants of the NX and 2 variants of the NX PHEV, IIHS has deemed the crossover worthy of the Top Safety Pick+ award.

Besides scoring high in the American crash tests, the Lexus NX is also among the highest-rated model awarded by Euro NCAP in 2022 so far. It’s also received one of the highest scores in Safety Assist with a 91% rating.

The all-new Lexus NX excels on the safety front and it’s likely that the incoming Malaysian-spec NX could feature the full Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 ADAS suite. According to sources, the turbocharged 2.4-litre engine (279 PS/430 Nm) could be offered first before the naturally-aspirated 2.5-litre (206 PS/243 Nm) while the hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants could be offered on special order basis

Also read: Malaysia-bound all-new 2022 Lexus NX to launch with 2.4 Turbo, 2.5 NA to come later