Five stars in 2023. One star in 2026. Same car, same name, different equipment.
That swing in the Proton X90’s rating, issued by the New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN NCAP), shows why a safety star rating deserves a closer read.
The program crash-tests cars sold across the region and scores them from zero to five stars, so buyers have something firmer than a brochure to go on.
A Consumer Test, Not a Law
Established in 2011 through a collaboration between the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) and Global NCAP, ASEAN NCAP is an independent vehicle safety assessment initiative covering Southeast Asia, according to the program’s official website.
The program evaluates vehicles through crash tests and assessments of safety technologies. Based on its evaluations, it awards ratings ranging from zero to five stars, with five stars representing the highest rating.
Unlike mandatory vehicle safety regulations, ASEAN NCAP is a consumer assessment program. Its results help buyers compare the safety performance of vehicles available in the Southeast Asian market and encourage manufacturers to equip their cars with better safety features.
Four Scores Behind One Rating
The program's assessment framework consists of four categories.
- Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) evaluates how well a vehicle protects adult occupants during a crash. Frontal and side-impact tests help assess the vehicle's structure and restraint systems.
- Child Occupant Protection (COP) examines protection for younger passengers, including child restraint systems and their installation in vehicles.
- Safety Assist (SA) assesses technologies designed to help prevent collisions or reduce their severity. These include Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), which can apply the brakes when a potential collision is detected, and seatbelt reminder systems.
- Motorcyclist Safety (MS) addresses risks faced by motorcyclists, who share roads with cars throughout Southeast Asia. Features such as blind-spot detection and systems that can detect motorcycles during emergency braking assessments contribute to this category.
Each star level has a minimum score for every category. Five stars, for example, takes at least 80 percent in Adult Occupant Protection, 75 in Child Occupant Protection, 75 in Safety Assist and 55 in Motorcyclist Safety. Fall short in one and the overall rating drops, however well the car does elsewhere.
ASEAN NCAP’s FAQ also names two specific requirements. A car without Electronic Stability Control (ESC) or a seatbelt reminder tops out at four stars, even with a five-star crash-test score.
The Proton X90 Case
A star rating belongs to the car that was tested, not to every car with the same name. The Proton X90 shows how that plays out. In 2023, the X90 earned five stars under ASEAN NCAP’s 2021-2025 protocol, scoring 83.75 out of 100.
On March 15, 2026, ASEAN NCAP cut the updated model to one star. The new version had dropped several driver-assistance systems, among them AEB, Forward Collision Warning, Lane Departure Warning, Lane Keep Assist, Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Blind Spot Technology.
Without them, its Safety Assist result fell to four stars and Motorcyclist Safety to one. The protocol lets the weakest category limit the overall rating, so the X90 finished with one star.
The 2023 result still stands for the specified units built between 2023 and 2025. Buyers should check the equipment on the exact variant they are considering, because a rating earned by an older configuration does not carry over to a newer one.
Harder Tests Under the 2026-2030 Protocol
The 2026-2030 protocol applies to new assessments from January 2026. The X90 downgrade in March came under the earlier 2021-2025 rules, the same ones its 2023 rating was issued under.
Several tests become tougher. The moving barrier used in side-impact tests increases in weight from 950 to 1,300 kg, and child occupant assessments switch to larger Q6 and Q10 test dummies. Child presence detection, lane support and inter-urban emergency braking also carry more points.
The most notable addition is emergency braking that detects motorcycles. WapCar noted that cars in Southeast Asia collide with motorcycles more often than with pedestrians, which it said explains the test.
Electric vehicles with high-voltage systems are assessed under a separate protocol.
Because the criteria differ between cycles, star ratings from different periods are not directly comparable. A five-star car assessed under the earlier protocol has not necessarily faced the same tests as one rated under the 2026-2030 rules, which is one more reason to check which protocol, and which variant, a rating belongs to.
