The ASEAN Toyota Yaris Cross has had something of a quiet existence since it was revealed back in 2023, but more than two years later, it has finally been crash tested by ASEAN NCAP. The B-segment SUV has received a solid five-star rating in Indonesian-spec guise, matching rivals like the Nissan Kicks, Mitsubishi Xforce, Chery Omoda 5 and GAC GS3 Emzoom.
Breaking the results down, the Yaris Cross scored 29.28 points out of 32 in adult occupant protection (AOP), 44.17 points out of 51 for child occupant protection (COP), 17.74 points out of 21 for safety assists and 9.76 points out of 16 for motorcycle safety; the overall score was 83.02%. The car is being tested under the 2021-2025 assessment protocol, its final year before new regulations begin next year.
Helping the Yaris Cross ace the test is the fact that it comes with six airbags and stability control as standard. The Toyota Safety Sense suite of driver assists, including autonomous emergency braking, lane keeping assist, blind spot monitoring and auto high beam, are fitted to higher trim levels.
Interestingly, the Yaris Cross is also listed as being made in Malaysia for the Malaysian market. That’s obviously not the case right now, given that UMW Toyota Motor does not sell the car here, so it may just be an error on ASEAN NCAP’s part.
But could it be that the Malaysian-based agency’s renewed interest in the Yaris Cross (after all, it had every chance to test the car over the past two years) be indicative of some movement on the local front? Remember that Perodua had been rumoured to be working on a B-segment crossover, said to be codenamed D66B, for years – even before the Yaris Cross was revealed.
Perodua even went so far as to trademark the names Traz and Nexis, almost certainly for this new model. But the trail suddenly went cold around last year, and we can assume this was because the national carmaker had to quickly pivot towards building its own electric vehicle in house. Now that it’s at the tail end of development (the car is set to be launched at the end of the year), could we see this project being restarted? We’ll be looking forward to it surfacing sometime next year.
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