Honda achieved the maximum rating of five stars in the products and services category of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA) Road Safety Index, becoming the first global company to receive such recognition. This achievement was formally awarded during the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, held in Monza last weekend.
This index, established in 2022, focuses differently from traditional vehicle tests; it evaluates companies. The tool allows both corporations and public entities to calculate their own 'road safety footprint,' measuring the number of fatalities and serious injuries related to their operations and value chains, following a logic similar to carbon emission accounting.
The creation of this index was a direct response to the Stockholm Declaration of 2020, which called for greater private sector participation in achieving global traffic goals. Unlike programs such as Latin NCAP and Euro NCAP, which test specific models against barriers using dummies, the FIA index audits the company's corporate management.
This audit verifies whether the organization measures the problem, develops action plans, monitors results, and maintains an internal culture of safety, thereby feeding into governance and sustainability reports. The five stars do not attest that a Honda vehicle is superior to a competitor in a frontal collision, but rather that the brand's road safety management has reached the highest methodological level.
The system operates through two aspects: one focused on the supply chain and another dedicated to products and services, the latter being the area where the Japanese company obtained the maximum score. The methodology was expanded this year, moving from three to five stars, adding to the original pillars—commitment and safety footprint—the elements of planning, performance monitoring, and safety culture management.
To comply with this new structure, Honda extended its audit to 17 countries, including Brazil, a market that represents over 90% of the company's global sales of cars and motorcycles. In February 2025, when the limit was still three stars, the automaker had already earned the top rating, but with scope limited to the Japanese operation. At that time, the FIA announcement also included nine other companies, such as Amazon, Scania, Shell, Uber, and Waymo.
The specific evaluation highlighted senior management's engagement in the strategy, the global monitoring of accident victims, and transparency in data disclosure. Honda's public commitment is to halve deaths in collisions involving its vehicles by 2030, calculating the proportion per ten thousand units sold, taking 2020 as a reference. The subsequent goal is to completely eliminate these deaths by 2050. Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President of the FIA, emphasized that progress depends on coordinated actions in public and private spheres, advocating for governments to integrate this methodology into their regulatory frameworks.