Kia Telluride 2027 and Tesla Model Y 2026–2027 IIHS safety ratings

© IIHS

Of seven vehicles in a new round of IIHS testing, only two earned the highest Top Safety Pick+ award: the Kia Telluride 2027 and Tesla Model Y 2026–2027. Kia has an important restriction, however: the rating applies only to vehicles built after June 2026. The reason is not the body structure or airbags, but the headlights.

For the Telluride 2027, the difference after the lighting change can be measured in tens of meters. On early vehicles, the low beams illuminated the right side of a straight road to 82.6 m; after the change, that rose to 98.5 m. On the left, the figure increased from 46.8 to 58.6 m. The headlight rating consequently improved from Marginal to Good, enough for the top award.

The Tesla Model Y, updated for the 2026 model year, earned Good ratings in all six disciplines that count toward Top Safety Pick+: three crash tests, headlights, and two crash-prevention evaluations involving vehicles and pedestrians. Its full scorecard is not perfect: the separate seat-belt reminder evaluation was rated Marginal, but that item is not part of the award criteria.

The other five vehicles received no IIHS safety award. On the BMW i4, vehicle-to-vehicle crash prevention was rated Poor, while the headlights ranged from Marginal to Poor. The GMC Canyon also received Poor in the vehicle-to-vehicle prevention test. The BMW 3 Series, Lexus IS and Toyota Crown Signia fell short in at least one required discipline.

This kind of production-date cutoff is not new for IIHS. The Hyundai Palisade 2026, for example, earned the top rating only for vehicles built after November 2025. IIHS testing in July also underscored how demanding the 2026 award criteria have become. For anyone buying a Telluride 2027, the model year alone is therefore not enough: the actual production date is worth checking.