More Cars Get IIHS Top Safety Pick Awards Despite Tougher 2026 Rules

By Logan K. Carter
The IIHS moderate front overlap crash test of a green 2026 Subaru Outback IIHS/YouTube

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, is an independent agency that puts new cars through a barrage of tests to evaluate their safety. The IIHS has done this sort of testing for decades, and each year it releases a list of the top performing vehicles, called its Top Safety Picks. Over the years, new and different tests have been added that continuously make earning Top Safety Pick tougher. The institute even added a new above-the-top rating back called Top Safety Pick+ to push things forward, and 2026 is no different — the requirements are tougher than ever. 

Despite tougher requirements, 15 more cars have already qualified for the awards than this time last year, with a total of 63 winners. This year, the IIHS required a good rating in its updated moderate overlap crash test for cars to earn either a Top Safety Pick award or a tougher Top Safety Pick+ award, and a good-or-acceptable rating in the new more thorough vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention evaluation was required to earn a Top Safety Pick+.

If safety is toward the top of your new car priority list, there are several vehicles from most categories on this list that offer a good place to start, some with base prices starting as low as $23,535. 

2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award winners

This year, what sets Top Safety Pick+ award winners apart from Top Safety Pick award winners is their superior back seat occupant safety, as well as their superior automated crash avoidance systems. The IIHS introduced its new vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test to the award criteria this year, and Top Safety Pick+ award winners must achieve a score of either acceptable or good in order to qualify. 

The test involves sending each car toward three different stationary vehicle types at 31 mph, 37 mph, and 43 mph. The three different vehicles that each system must avoid are a stopped semi-truck trailer, as well as a stationary passenger car and a stationary motorcycle, both of which are tested with the respective vehicle stopped in the center of the lane and offset to the right or left. A technician drives the test vehicle toward the stationary targets without touching the brake pedal, and the vehicle must issue timely warnings in all scenarios and substantially slow or entirely avoid a collision in order to earn a good rating. These are all the models that earn a Top Safety Pick+ award so far in 2026.

Small Cars

Midsize Cars

  • Hyundai Sonata
  • Toyota Camry
  • Audi A5

Large Cars

  • 2027 Audi A6 Sportback e-tron
  • Genesis G80 (built after June 2025)

Small SUVs

Midsize SUVs

Midsize luxury SUVs

Large SUVs

Large Pickup

  • Tesla Cybertruck

2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick award winners

Small cars

  • Honda Civic hatchback
  • Hyundai Elantra
  • Toyota Prius

Midsize car

  • Honda Accord
  • Mercedes-Benz C-Class

Midsize SUVs

  • Buick Enclave
  • Ford Explorer
  • Ford Mustang Mach-E
  • Volkswagen Atlas
  • Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport
Midsize luxury SUVs
  • Lincoln Nautilus
  • Mercedes-Benz GLC
  • Volvo XC90
  • Volvo XC90 Plug-in Hybrid

Large SUVs

  • Audi Q7
  • Infiniti QX80
  • Nissan Armada

Large pickup

  • Toyota Tundra crew cab

For more in-depth details about the ratings and testing procedures, visit the IIHS website.

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