Toyota Prius, Prius Prime and Corolla Cross garner IIHS awards

The 2023 Toyota Prius and Prius Prime, both small cars, earn Top Safety Pick+ awards from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross, a small SUV, is a Top Safety Pick.

To qualify for either award in 2023, a vehicle must earn good ratings in the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, and original moderate overlap front tests. Acceptable or good headlights must be standard across all trims, and a front crash prevention system that earns advanced or superior ratings in the daytime vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluation must be available. For the base award, a vehicle also needs either an acceptable or good rating in the updated side crash test. For the “plus,” it must have a good rating in the updated side test and an advanced or superior rating in the nighttime vehicle-to-pedestrian test.

Redesigned for the 2023 model year, the hybrid Prius and plug-in hybrid Prius Prime meet all the requirements for the “plus.” Both vehicles come with a standard front crash prevention system that earns superior ratings in the daytime and nighttime vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations and are equipped with acceptable-rated LED projector headlights across all trims. Previously, both Prius vehicles fell short of an award because of an acceptable rating in the passenger-side small overlap front crash test.

The Corolla Cross also boasts superior ratings in both pedestrian front crash prevention tests and comes with acceptable or good headlights across all trims, but an acceptable rating in the updated side test prevents it from qualifying for the higher-tier award.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is an independent, nonprofit scientific and educational organization dedicated to reducing deaths, injuries and property damage from motor vehicle crashes through research and evaluation and through education of consumers, policymakers and safety professionals.

The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) shares and supports this mission through scientific studies of insurance data representing the human and economic losses resulting from the ownership and operation of different types of vehicles and by publishing insurance loss results by vehicle make and model.

Both organizations are wholly supported by these auto insurers and insurance associations.