Tokyo, May 27, 2020 – MITSUBISHI MOTORS CORPORATION (MMC) today announced that eK X (pronounced eK “cross”) and eK Wagon have been awarded the highest rating by Japan New Car Assessment Program (JNCAP).

The JNCAP is a joint project by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the National Agency for Automotive Safety and Victims’ Aid (NASVA).

Both the eK X and eK Wagon with different heights earned the highest ASV+++ rating (Advanced Safety Vehicle as defined by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) in preventive safety performance and the maximum five-star rating in collision safety performance in the FY2019 JNCAP crash test and assessment (for the fiscal year 2019 from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020).

“Safety is the most important aspect of Mitsubishi vehicles – for the occupants as well as other road users,” says Nic Campbell, General Manager of Mitsubishi Motors South Africa (MMSA).

Mitsubishi Motors’ safety concept underpins product development to promote a society with zero traffic accidents. The company is fully committed to developing and implementing active and passive safety technologies for accident prevention and occupant protection.

Driver assistance tech tops preventive safety performance
The eK X and eK Wagon are equipped with driver assistance technology which includes preventive safety measures to support the driver to avoid collisions or mitigate collision damage.

Lane Departure Warning (LDW) alerts the driver with a warning buzzer and information screen display when the vehicle is about to stray from its lane, while Lane Departure Prevention (LDP) assists the driver in moving the vehicle back to its intended lane.

Emergency Braking Assist for unintentional braking or acceleration, installed in both wagons, prevents loss of control and allow vehicles to automatically intervene to prevent crashes when a driver mistakenly hits the accelerator, while Multi Around Monitor (Manufacturer's option for certain models only) assists the driver to check the vehicle surroundings when parking.

In addition, the built-in Forward Collision Mitigation (FCM) braking system which detects pedestrians and vehicles in the path of the vehicle, and Automatic High Beam (AHB) which switches between high beam and low beam by detecting forward or oncoming vehicles and lighting of the road and its surroundings, ensure safer and more confident driving.

Both the eK X and eK Wagon received full scores for lane departure prevention, loss of control and rear-view monitoring systems.

RISE body designed for collision protection
The eK X and eK Wagon offer high levels of collision safety performance by adopting Mitsubishi Motors’ RISE (Reinforced Impact Safety Evolution) safety body system. It combines a front body design that absorbs impact energy with a deformation-resistant design for the passenger compartment, as well as six SRS airbags for enhanced passenger protection.

The kei wagons are designed to further improve pedestrian safety by means of an energy-absorbing structure in the bonnet to protect the head area of pedestrians, and an impact-absorbing structure inside the bumper to reduce injuries to the legs of pedestrians in the event of a collision.