NHTSA Names 23 Vehicles for 2027 Safety Testing

NHTSA has selected 23 model-year 2027 vehicles for its annual 5-Star Safety Ratings testing, putting several fleet-relevant pickups, SUVs and a minivan into the agency's crash, pedestrian-protection and driver-assistance review process.

The Oct. 15 announcement is a testing list, not a set of ratings. Results will be posted after testing and quality control are complete.

What NHTSA will test

The main group will receive frontal, side and rollover evaluations. NHTSA said those ratings cover 87% of all new vehicles. The list includes the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Nissan Frontier Crew Cab, Toyota Sienna Hybrid and a broad set of SUVs.

A separate group of 18 vehicles will receive the agency's pedestrian-protection verification testing. Ten vehicles, including the Silverado 1500, will be checked across five driver-assistance systems: automatic emergency braking, pedestrian automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, blind-spot warning and blind-spot intervention.

A specification watchlist, not a scorecard

For fleets that cycle pickups, vans, minivans and compact SUVs, the release is a useful specification watchlist. The testing program can surface differences in crash avoidance and pedestrian protection that are not obvious in a standard equipment sheet. Procurement teams should wait for the completed ratings before treating selection for testing as a performance result.

What to do with the list

Fleet safety and sourcing teams can use the list to flag upcoming models already in a replacement plan, then compare the finished ratings with their own use cases, driver-assistance policy and repairability requirements. It is especially relevant where a single vehicle class serves field, sales or service work across multiple regions.