The World’s Safest Cars 2025

When it comes to choosing a new vehicle, few considerations matter more than safety. Drivers around the world want to feel confident that their car can protect them, their passengers and even pedestrians in the event of an accident. That’s where ANCAP crash test results play a vital role. For more than 30 years, ANCAP has been independently testing and rating vehicles across Australia and New Zealand, giving consumers clear and reliable vehicle safety ratings they can trust.

The car insurance experts at Compare the Market Australia wanted to explore the safest cars on the market, highlighting both individual models and the world’s safest car manufacturers based on ANCAP’s rigorous testing protocols. By focusing exclusively on results from 2019 through to 2025, we’ve ensured that only the most recent, relevant and comparable data is included.

Each car was scored across four key areas: Adult Occupant Protection, Child Occupant Protection, Vulnerable Road User Protection, and Safety Assist. These categories provide a complete picture of how well vehicles perform in protecting all road users, from families to pedestrians. By drawing only on ANCAP’s official results, the findings provide a transparent and accurate view of safety performance in today’s automotive market.

The top safest car manufacturers

Let’s begin by looking at which manufacturers around the world design and build the safest cars.

#1 – Lexus

Japanese car brand Lexus comes in at number one for vehicle safety ratings. It receives an average overall score of 86.65% over the past five years, which is thanks to 89.20% adult occupant protection, 88.20% child occupant protection, 83.40% vulnerable road user protection, and 85.80% safety assist. Five models were tested to arrive at this score (LBX, RZ, NX, RX, UX).

#2 – LDV

LDV, a Chinese car manufacturer, ranks second with an average score of 86.42%. Its adult occupant protection is even higher than that of Lexus, averaging 92.33%. Child occupant protection is 88.33%, and vulnerable road user protection is 76.67%. A high level of safety assist (88.33%) is an additional key feature of this car brand. Three models were tested to arrive at this score (Terron 9, MIFA, MIFA 9).

#3 – Nissan

Another Japanese car brand, Nissan offers 89.60% protection for adult occupants, 90.40% for child occupants, 76.20% for vulnerable road users, and 89.00% safety assist. When combined, these factors give Nissan an overall rating of 86.30%. To arrive at this score, five models were tested (ARIYA, Pathfinder, X-TRAIL, QASHQAI, JUKE).

Other car brands with high vehicle safety ratings

Completing the top ten safest car manufacturers are Mercedes-Benz (Germany, 14 models tested, 85.88%), Mazda (Japan, 15 models tested, 85.45%), Toyota (Japan, 14 models tested, 85.45%), Subaru (Japan, 5 models tested, 85.25%), Polestar (Sweden, 3 models tested, 85.17%), BMW (Germany, 9 models tested, 84.20%) and Chery (China, 4 models tested, 84.13%).