2024 Mazda CX-90 Plug-In Hybrid Earns Back IIHS Top Safety Pick+ Award
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rained on its own parade, in a sense, when it strengthened the criteria for its vehicle safety awards for 2024. Of course, the other way to look at the tougher requirements — the way the agency sees them — is that vehicles across all segments were performing so well in one set of evaluations that it was time to push for safety improvements in other areas.
Even if it were sentient, the Mazda CX-90 plug-in hybrid would pay no mind to such discussions; it would simply continue going about its business of being an excellent three-row SUV and capable protector of people in its luxurious cabin. After having its Top Safety Pick+ award downgraded to the lesser Top Safety Pick award due to the new requirements, the 2024 CX-90 PHEV earns back the agency’s highest honor after achieving the best score of good in IIHS’ updated moderate overlap front crash test. In doing so, it rejoins its gas-only counterpart, the CX-90, atop IIHS’s podium.
Related: Is the 2024 Mazda CX-90 a Good 3-Row SUV? 4 Pros and 3 Cons
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In the moderate overlap front crash test, the vehicle travels at 40 mph into a barrier that covers 40% of the vehicle’s width. The barrier’s deformable aluminum honeycomb face simulates the forces in a head-on collision in which both vehicles are of similar size. The updated version of this test does not change the speed of the vehicle or the mechanics of the collision; rather, it builds on the previous evaluation by adding a second dummy to the vehicle. Historically performed with only a mannequin representing an average adult male in the driver’s seat, the test now includes a dummy the size of an average 12-year-old child or a small adult female in the seat behind the driver. IIHS rates vehicle performance on a four-point scale: poor, marginal, acceptable and good; to qualify as a Top Safety Pick+, vehicles must score an acceptable or good rating in the updated test and rate good in both a second frontal crash test and a side impact test.
The CX-90 PHEV rated good in the updated moderate overlap front test. IIHS says the plug-in hybrid SUV’s structure held up well, with no heightened injury risks recorded from either dummy.
In addition, the vehicle’s standard headlights must rate at least acceptable, and its forward collision avoidance system needs to score an acceptable or good rating in a pedestrian detection test for the top award. The 2024 Mazda CX-90 PHEV’s headlights rated acceptable, and its standard active-safety system scored a good rating.
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