It’s only been a month since the next-generation Toyota Hilux made its global debut, and now it has proven that it’s one of the safest pickup trucks out there.

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) put the 9th-generation Hilux through a series of rigorous safety tests, and the pickup truck successfully passed with flying colors.

Across the tests, the Hilux provided consistently good performance across the assessment pillars, scoring 84% for Adult Occupant Protection, 89% for Child Occupant Protection, 82% for Vulnerable Road User Protection, and 82% for Safety Assist, respectively.

Apart from its structure doing its job to protect both adult and child occupants, the Hilux also features a broadened suite of safety features including a centre airbag and enhanced automatic emergency breaking (AEB) functionality in its Toyota Safety Sense suite.

For the Australia and New Zealand markets, Autonomous emergency braking (Car-to-Car, Vulnerable Road User, Junction & Crossing, Backover and Head-On) as well as a lane support system with lane keep assist (LKA), lane departure warning (LDW) and emergency lane keeping (ELK) are standard. An advanced speed assistance system (SAS) with speed sign recognition is also standard.

Because of this, ANCAP awarded the Hilux a maximum five-star rating after excelling in all four assessment areas.

While the all-new Hilux is yet to make its way to the Philippines, customers can already be rest assured that the new model is engineered not just to perform better, but also to keep its occupants safe in the case of a crash.