The Volkswagen Group has been bitten by its slow roll-out of speed sign recognition in Australia, with the electric Cupra Tavascan falling short of a five-star saferty rating due to the feature’s omission.
The 2025 Cupra Tavascan electric SUV has received a four-star ANCAP safety rating for Australia, down from five stars for European versions tested under identical criteria.
ANCAP said it was forced to hand a four-star safety rating to the Cupra Tavascan due to the lack of "advanced" speed-sign recognition in versions sold in Australia and New Zealand, with its safety assistance score falling short of the five-star standard.
Volkswagen Group Australia has been slowly adding speed sign recognition to its vehicles, with the latest Volkswagen Amarok, Touareg, Tiguan and Skoda Kodiaq including the feature as standard.
The Cupra Tavascan and other electric models such as the Volkswagen ID. Buzz, ID.4, ID.5, Cupra Born, and Enyaq are not fitted with speed-sign recognition. The Enyaq is covered by a five-star rating from testing conducted in 2021.
In Europe, the vehicles include an intelligent speed-limiter function to warn drivers if they are speeding, a mandatory feature for all new cars sold there since July 2024.
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz has not received an ANCAP score, while New Zealand versions of the ID.4 are covered by a five-star ANCAP safety rating with marks deducted for the lack of speed-sign recognition over its Euro NCAP result.
Speed-sign recognition technology was added to the Volkswagen Golf Mk7 in Europe when it launched 13 years ago.
It is now standard-fit in many Volkswagen, Cupra and Skoda models sold in Europe, along with other safety features such as autonomous emergency braking, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring and adaptive cruise control.
ANCAP – which has been assessing the technology since 2018 – has acknowledged it can be difficult for systems to read Australia's unique mix of US- and UK-style speed-limit signs, with carmakers often required to perform additional calibration of their systems.
ANCAP CEO Carla Hoorweg said the lack of an advanced speed assistance system "primarily contributed" to the Tavascan's four-star result.
"Speed sign recognition and an intelligent speed limiter are standard in European models but have not been made available to current Australian Tavascan buyers.
"The Tavascan performed well in each of the other areas of assessment, and we encourage Cupra to consider an update to Australian vehicles to elevate it to the five-star level of its European equivalents."
A minimum score of 70 per cent in the safety assistance category is required to achieve a five-star rating, with the Tavascan scoring 67 per cent – enough for four stars – compared to 79 per cent in Europe.
The Tavascan met the criteria for a five-star rating in all other categories, achieving 89 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for child occupant protection, and 80 per cent for vulnerable road-user protection.
Under ANCAP's criteria, a vehicle must meet the threshold for a five-star rating in every area of assessment to be eligible for the top score.
ANCAP said the electric SUV offered 'good' protection for most body regions of the driver and front passenger in the frontal-offset crash test.
A potential injury risk was identified from "some dashboard structures" with an 'adequate' rating for the driver's upper legs and 'marginal' for the passenger's upper legs.
There are six levels of protection in ANCAP testing: ‘Good’, ‘adequate’, ‘marginal’, ‘weak’, ‘poor’, and ‘not tested’.
'Good' results were achieved in the side-impact test, while the oblique pole test showed 'adequate' chest protection but 'good' levels of protection for all other critical body areas.
Full points were awarded for the protection of both child dummies in the frontal-offset and side-impact crash tests.
ANCAP noted the Tavascan does not detect adult or child pedestrians while reversing, and its anti-dooring system to alert drivers of cyclists approaching from behind did not issue a warning "sufficiently early" with a 'poor' result recorded.
The Cupra Tavascan is on sale now, with the rear-wheel-drive Endurance available from $60,990 before on-road costs and the all-wheel-drive VZ priced from $74,490.
It is the first Volkswagen Group product sold in Australia to be manufactured in China in two decades.
Jordan is a motoring journalist based in Melbourne with a lifelong passion for cars. He has been surrounded by classic Fords and Holdens, brand-new cars, and everything in between from birth, with his parents’ owning an automotive workshop in regional Victoria. Jordan started writing about cars in 2021, and joined the Drive team in 2024.
