The Automobile association’s Bobby Ramagwede recently described the Terron 9 as the safest bakkie in South Africa, because of its full five-star ANCAP safety rating. This places it among a new generation of bakkies meeting some of the most demanding independent vehicle safety standards.
Achieving a five-star ANCAP rating is a significant safety milestone, particularly as testing standards continue to evolve. Significantly stricter testing protocols, introduced over the last few years, now assess several more factors other than the original criteria of adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, vulnerable road user protection and safety assist features.
In fact, there are now eight key changes under the more recent ANCAP protocols, which include a more demanding crash protection assessment; motorcycle detection; improved pedestrian protection and more advanced emergency braking. In addition to this, greater cyclist protection is now assessed, along with child presence detection, driver attention, distraction and fatigue monitoring as well as emergency escape, which assesses whether occupants can open doors or windows following submersion in water, including situations where electrical power is lost.
The LDV Terron 9 achieved an impressive 91% for adult occupant protection and 89% for child occupant protection. It also scored 84% for vulnerable road user protection, which assesses safety measures for pedestrians and cyclists, with ANCAP highlighting its effective reversing emergency braking system for detecting adult and child pedestrians. This model also achieved 85% for safety assist, which evaluates advanced driver assistance and accident-prevention technologies.
The Terron 9 secured maximum points in full-width frontal, side-impact and occupant-to-occupant crash tests, with ANCAP itself describing the Terron 9 as “an excellent result for LDV’s new generation UTE”.
ANCAP (the Australasian New Car Assessment Program) , is Australia and New Zealand’s independent voice on vehicle safety. The organisation crash tests cars and conducts on-track and on-road performance assessments on safety features and technologies which are then used to publish a simple star rating or grading to indicate relative safety performance.
Over the last three decades, ANCAP has published independent safety ratings for thousands of new vehicle makes, models and variants. These independent safety ratings and gradings are used to compare the relative safety between vehicles of similar size and have become a critical factor in vehicle selection for private consumers and fleet buyers.
ANCAP is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading independent vehicle safety assessment programmes. Established in 1992, ANCAP is also one of the world’s longest-running independent vehicle safety assessment organisations, with over 30 years of experience. The organisation incorporates internationally recognised testing standards, developed in close collaboration with Euro NCAP, its European counterpart.
The LDV Terron 9 double-cab is available in two specifications and priced from R779 900. It features, Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) with forward/rear collision warning , lane safety systems and blind spot assist, parking and visibility support and stability and control systems including traction control, hill-start assist, hill descent control and tyre pressure monitoring.
Powered by a 2.5-litre turbo-diesel engine delivering 164kW and 520Nm of torque, paired with an 8-speed ZF automatic transmission and 4×4 drivetrain, the Terron 9 features advanced driver assistance systems and off-road capability.
By testing vehicles against standards that go beyond minimum regulatory requirements, ANCAP encourages manufacturers to continually improve vehicle safety and introduce more advanced safety technologies, something LDV has demonstrated with the Terron 9.
