Sixteen more models finish 2025 with IIHS accolades

Sixteen 2025 and 2026 models from 12 different brands earn Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ awards in the latest round of vehicle ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The Top Safety Pick+ winners include the Audi A6 Sportback e-tron, Audi All-new Q5, Audi All-new Q5 Sportback, Genesis G80, Honda Passport, Infiniti QX60, Kia Sorento, Lexus NX, Subaru Forester, Tesla Cybertruck, Volkswagen Atlas, Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport and Volvo EX90.

The Acura ADX, Hyundai Palisade and Tesla Model 3 earn the lower-tier Top Safety Pick award.

To qualify for either award this year, vehicles need good ratings in the small overlap front and side tests, an acceptable or good rating in the pedestrian front crash prevention evaluation and acceptable- or good-rated headlights across all trim levels.

An acceptable rating in the moderate overlap front test is enough to qualify for Top Safety Pick, but a good rating is required for the “plus.”

Three current IIHS evaluations — vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention 2.0, seat belt reminders and LATCH ease of use — are not part of the award criteria but are included in the table below. Consumers may wish to factor them into their purchase decisions.

Many of the new award winners boast improved performance in the moderate overlap front test compared with earlier versions. A few have better headlights or higher ratings in the small overlap or side tests.

In some cases, the modifications needed to achieve those gains were made midway through the model year. For those models, the award only applies to vehicles built after a specific date, which is noted in the table.

New ratings are also available for the Jeep Gladiator, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Ram 1500 crew cab and Volkswagen Tiguan, none of which qualifies for an award.

Subpar performance in the headlight and pedestrian crash avoidance evaluations prevent the Gladiator from qualifying. It also has not undergone the small overlap crash test. The others miss out due to marginal or poor ratings in the moderate overlap test.

The most recent additions bring the total number of 2025 Top Safety Pick+ award winners to 66 and the number of 2025 Top Safety Pick winners to 18.

Complete ratings for 20 recently tested vehicles