Arrival of the Puma hybrid comes as Euro NCAP alters the model’s safety rating

FIVE stars for the Ford Puma from New Zealand’s accredited crash test assessor two years ago has degraded to four from the sister organisation in Europe – because the latter’s test has become more challenging.

The revised European NCAP score has just announced for the brand’s small sports utility, which in this market now restricts to a hybrid model to support Ford NZ’s push to improved emissions counts.

Euro NCAP says it is due to challenges in adult occupant protection that arise from it being an older design.

It is not clear if the updated score will be adopted by Australasian NCAP, which is the accredited agency here and has NZ Government funding.

It is not uncommon, though, for ANCAP to use Euro NCAP scores for cars common to both markets. Ford NZ said today it has received no information about the matter.

Puma first underwent Euro NCAP assessment, in 2019, and the five-star result from that occasion was subsequently became an ANCAP accreditation in September 2020, nicely timing with Puma’s introduction here.

The model’s importance in the Ford range has elevated with Ford having not determined its future lays with sports utilities, and electrified and fully electric cars.

That strategy has resulted in a decision to discontinue the Fiesta small hatchback, from which Puma derives, with the next-size-up Focus set to curtail production in 2025. It also means the Puma now has a mild hybrid drivetrain here.

Puma’s retest by European NCAP was undertaken recently. Having toughened its testing regime, the independent body was intrigued to see if one important cars on the European market had kept pace with newer rivals for safety.

It scored four stars out of five for protecting adults in the car. While this is still a good result, it puts the Puma behind the Toyota Yaris Cross, which secured five stars out of five under the current test programme.

This isn’t a safety black mark for Puma. Euro NCAP says its four-star rating means the car still offers overall good performance both in crash protection and across the board.

All the same, in its latest test, it found more issues, in part because – unlike some more recent designs – the Puma does not have centre airbags or another countermeasure to prevent occupants being at risk of injuries from being thrown across a cabin in a side impact.

In a rear-end collision, it found the front seats and head restraints only offered ‘marginal’ protection against whiplash injuries plus it was also affected by not having a function not required in NZ; an advanced eCall system to alert emergency services in the event of an accident.

In its MHEV (for mild hybrid electric) format, Puma maintains the 1.0-litre three cylinder petrol it initially released with but, in hybrid format, it takes an 11kW electric motor and an integrated starter/generator as additionals to the 92kW/170Nm powerplant.

The ISG replaces the alternator and, as well as recovering some energy during braking and providing torque fill for better throttle response and acceleration, it allows the car to coast with the engine off.

Cylinder deactivation is also carried over from current version of the non-hybrid Ecoboost engine and can cut three cylinders down to two in just 14 milliseconds under light loads.

The engine also picks up a larger turbo but, as the system can add only 50Nm, nobody should expect dramatically improved acceleration.

However, Ford assures the electric urge will be felt, saying the lithium ion battery pack the Hybrid also takes – at cost of some boot capacity – will provide torque assistance during normal driving and acceleration, as well as running the vehicle’s electrical ancillaries.

There’s no driver interaction. Instead, the set-up is self-regulating and continuously monitors how the vehicle is being used to determine when and how intensively to charge the battery for optimal benefit, and when to utilise the stored battery charge.

Ford talks of a fuel efficiency improvement of up to nine percent, citing economy of 5.4 litres per 100km, and says CO2 drops to 112 grams per kilometre measured on the WLTP scale.

The battery bump also touches pricing. The MHEVs are $36,990 in standard and $39,990 in ST-Line formats, whereas the car as a pure petrol was $33,990, though it was put into issue for $29,990 plus on roads as a launch special, with the ST-Line posting at $37,990. All prices are exclusive of on-roads.