Van safety has long been overlooked, with many vehicles getting the absolute bare minimum in terms of protection. All the while passenger car safety improves as more equipment is released and tests get stricter. Even the best vans, meanwhile, often had to make do with a single airbag at best.
This is starting to change, though, and Euro NCAP’s introduction of commercial vehicle safety ratings in 2021 was a big step in the right direction. More crucial, though, was the EU General Safety Regulation (GSR2) that arrived in July 2024 for all new vehicles, which has effectively dragged manufacturers kicking and screaming to a safer future by mandating more tech.
Euro NCAP is pushing for slightly tougher standards still, it says, but despite this, the assessments it carries out are not as thorough as the equivalent ones for cars. Rather than putting the vehicles through the same rigorous crash testing, the testers assess vans for their safety assist equipment. Partly because of this, they get different scores to differentiate them from the ratings given to cars.
Where cars are given a star rating out of five, vans are given a colour-coded equivalent, with Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum all possible. Those that perform really badly, though, get a simple ‘Not Recommended’.
Euro NCAP has now announced its final set of van safety results for 2024, with the organisation saying that ‘significant progress’ had been made with their safety performance.
What was new for 2024?
As of July 2024, all new vehicles must comply with the EU General Safety Regulation (GSR2). This requires much more in the way of safety and driver assistance technology.
This mandates the fitment of a range of safety kit. All vehicles including cars and vans must now be fitted with intelligent speed assistance, reversing detection with either a camera or sensors, attention warning in case of driver drowsiness or distraction, event data recorders and an emergency stop signal. Cars and vans also need to come with lane keeping assist and automated braking.
Secretary general Euro NCAP Dr. Michiel van Ratingen said: ‘We have seen a significant improvement in the availability of ADAS as manufacturers comply with new legislation. Our Commercial Van ratings though are designed to drive the effectiveness and performance beyond what is required by GSR2.
‘It is pleasing that vehicle manufacturers are responding to Euro NCAP’s tougher requirements and surpassing GSR2 standards, and we would urge fleet managers to consider Commercial Vans that have the Euro NCAP Platinum rating. These are the vehicles which most significantly outperform GSR2 regulations and offer commercial fleets safer choices that prevent or mitigate the severity of crashes and protect company reputation and their drivers.
How have the results changed?
In 2021, Euro NCAP assessed 19 vans, which accounted for the vast majority of the vehicles sold in the European market. The Ford Transit, the Mercedes-Benz Vito and the Volkswagen Transporter 6.1 were all given Gold awards while the Fiat Talento, Opel/Vauxhall Movano, Nissan NV400, Renault Master and Renault Trafic were all marked as ‘not recommended.’ No vans hit the top standards required to get a Platinum rating.
In 2022 things improved slightly, with only the Nissan NV400 (now the Interstar) rated as not recommended while the Fiat Ducato stepped up from Gold to Platinum.
The Ducato lost its Platinum rating for 2023, but this was down to the stricter ratings rather than a change to the van’s offering but it remained the highest rated vehicle in the list. The Interstar retained its position at the foot of the table.
The 2024 changes have seen the biggest leap, though, with 14 getting the top Platinum rating, and only one van now – the LEVC VN5 – getting a Silver, and everything else being ranked higher.
The below list isn’t every van that is on sale – these are just those that got the top rating, as there are so many these days. To see the full list, head to Euro NCAP’s website.
10. Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo – 83%
The Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo is possibly the most interesting van currently available, with its retro-inspired styling, excellent driving manners and long electric range working in its favour.
It’s also highly impressive when it comes to safety according to Euro NCAP, and boasts an 83% overall rating. Full marks were recorded for its occupant status monitoring, but adequate ratings for the autonomous emergency for pedestrians and cyclists stopped it from being rated higher.
9. Volkswagen Caddy/Ford Transit Connect – 83%
The VW Caddy has appeared in Euro NCAP’s test lists before, but was reassessed for 2024 and has upped its rating from 68% and gold to 83% and a Platinum result. The big change is that the Ford Transit Connect is also part of the same result and gets the same score.
The small van did relatively well across most of its categories, with an equal number of adequate and good results, but it did particularly well when testers looked at the lane support systems and occupant status monitoring. Both of these scored the maximum possible.
8. Nissan Interstar/Renault Master – 84%
Two vans, one result – the all-new Nissan Interstar and Renault Master are fundamentally the same vehicle, so they share safety systems and resultant Euro NCAP score. This is particularly good news as the previous Interstar was a holder of an undesired ‘Not recommended’ rating.
This time around the pair both get an 84% overall score but are rated good in all bar one of the six individual areas – only AEB pedestrian gets an adequate result, while it is particularly good at spotting cyclists and recognising when there are people on board.
7. Farizon SV
The electric Farizon SV is a new entry into the van world in 2025. Originating from Chinese automotive group Geely, it spans the medium van and large van segments, and is set to arrive in the UK in the middle of 2025, and operate with a traditional dealer network. It promises impressive efficiency and a claimed electric range of up to 342 miles.
Despite being a newbie, it’s already recorded an impressive 85% safety assist rating from Euro NCAP. The only area where it fell short was speed assistance, with no active speed limiter fitted as standard, which is where it cost some points.
6. Mercedes Citan – 87%
Not all co-developed vans are equal when it comes to Euro NCAP ratings – the Mercedes Citan might be fundamentally the same as the Renault Kangoo but the Merc picks up a Platinum score and 87% rating while the Kangoo only gets Gold. This is no newly acquired Platinum score, either, as the Citan has been ahead of the curve on this front.
With the exception of an ‘adequate’ performance in autonomous emergency braking for pedestrians, it scored good in all other areas. Just be aware that a lot of the equipment that helps the Citan to be ranked so highly is only available as an optional extra.
5. Mercedes Sprinter – 89%
The large Mercedes Sprinter was another van to be tested in 2024 by Euro NCAP, and it ended with an impressive result – resulting in an overall safety rating of 89%.
The safety organisation praised the Standard for coming as standard with a raft of the latest driver assistance technology and said that the changes made to it in 2024 represented a ‘huge improvement’ over the previous version. It performed well in all key areas assessed.
4. Mercedes-Benz Vito – 90%
But the safest van to come from Mercedes is the mid-size Vito, which received a very impressive score of 90%.
The ratings are excellent across the board, too, with only the AEB cyclist detection letting the side down a bit with its adequate result. Of the other areas the pedestrian detection’s 9.9/10 score was bettered only by the 15/15 result for occupant status monitoring.
3. Ford Transit Courier – Platinum
The Transit Courier might be Ford’s smallest van, but it’s certainly not compromised when it comes to safety, as it’s the third highest rated van from Euro NCAP.
The Transit Courier is heavily based around Ford’s Puma car, and that shows when it comes to safety. It scored a high 93% rating overall, and recorded ‘good’ scores in all categories. Top marks were also awarded for its lane support, speed assist and occupant status monitoring systems.
2. Ford Transit – 95%
The big, full-size Ford Transit was another van reassessed in 2024 in-line with these latest changes, and it resulted in a significant improvement, now being the second safest van you can buy with an excellent 95% rating for its safety assistance.
Euro NCAP said its safety technology is ‘on par with modern passenger cars’, with top marks awarded for its lane support and occupant status monitoring. The only ‘adequate’ rating was for the autonomous emergency braking in the child running from behind parked vehicles scenario.
1. Ford Transit Custom – 96%
Up there at the top as the safest van you can currently buy is the Ford Transit Custom, which is excellent news as it’s by far the most popular new van. It’s something Ford’s engineers targeted to in its development, so they’ll be pleased with the result.
In fact, it racks up high ratings across the board, getting the maximum possible score for its lane support, speed assist and occupant status monitoring systems. In fact, about the only thing that Euro NCAP highlighted was the fact that there is a ‘slight drop-off in performance of the forward-collision warning at the highest speeds.’
The same set of scores also apply to the new Volkswagen Transporter, with the two vans sharing much of the same technology. The new Transporter arrives in the UK later in 2025.
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