Japanese automaker Honda has become the first organisation to achieve a five-star rating under the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA’s) expanded Road Safety Index.
The FIA has increased the Index’s maximum rating from three to five stars to recognise organisations driving continuous road safety improvements across their operations and delivering measurable results. Honda received five stars in the Products/Services category, which assesses the road safety performance of an organisation’s products or services.
The new five-star framework means companies seeking the highest rating must provide evidence that their safety policies are being put into practice and monitored, rather than simply demonstrating that formal commitments and controls exist.
Willem Groenewald, FIA Secretary General for Automobile Mobility, Sustainability and Tourism, told Zag Daily that Honda had to demonstrate a “broader scope of action and supporting evidence” to qualify for five stars.
Under the previous three-star framework, organisations were assessed on their commitment to road safety and their road safety footprint. The expanded assessment adds three areas: Planning, Monitoring of Safety Performance, and Safety Culture Management & Supply Chain or Products/Services Coverage.
“In practice, this meant showing how Honda puts road safety policies into action, monitors whether they are working, and makes adjustments where needed,” Groenewald said.
Emphasis on evidence
The FIA launched the Road Safety Index in 2022 as a way for organisations to measure the impact of their activities on road deaths and serious injuries across their operations and value chains.
Its expanded methodology is intended to make that assessment more rigorous. Planning examines whether organisations have a clear action plan based on safety performance factors. Monitoring looks at how performance and outcomes are tracked. The final module assesses how road safety is managed across an organisation’s culture and its products, services or supply chain.
The Index has two ratings. The supply chain rating covers activities from procurement of raw materials through to production and customer delivery, while the Products/Services rating assesses the safety aspects of an organisation’s products or services. Honda received five stars in the latter category.
Honda’s assessment recognised its safety targets, governance arrangements and approach to measuring its global road safety footprint, alongside plans to deliver and monitor further progress.
The company has set a target of reducing traffic collision fatalities involving its motorcycles and automobiles by 50% per 10,000 units sold by 2030 compared with a 2020 baseline. It aims to reach zero such fatalities globally by 2050.
Honda previously became the first company in the automotive industry to achieve the FIA Road Safety Index’s then-highest three-star rating. This remains a vital milestone, demonstrating an organisation’s understanding of road safety risks and commitment to addressing them, while laying the foundation for progressing towards five stars.
The new five-star assessment therefore provided a test of whether the company could demonstrate the systems needed to manage those commitments continuously.
The rating was recognised at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza during the FIA Formula One Italian Grand Prix in September.
For the FIA, Honda’s result is also intended to establish a reference point. Groenewald said the FIA hoped the first five-star rating would encourage more organisations to measure their road safety footprint and take concrete action to make roads safer for everyone.
H.E. Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President of the FIA, said road safety required action across the public and private sectors to drive meaningful improvements at scale.
“The FIA has an important role to play in accelerating change for road users worldwide,” he said. “Alongside our work with companies, we encourage governments to consider how the FIA Road Safety Index methodology can support regulatory compliance frameworks and strengthen road safety standards globally.”
His call reflects a broader ambition for the Index, beyond voluntary corporate reporting. The FIA believes organisations can play a key role in advancing road safety because their decisions influence the safety of their employees, customers, suppliers and other road users. With government endorsement, wider adoption of the FIA Road Safety Index offers significant potential to reduce deaths and serious injuries on roads worldwide.
The approach also sits alongside the FIA’s Driver Safety Index, a separate tool that uses telematics data to measure driver risk across countries, fleets and vehicle types. While the Driver Safety Index focuses on behaviour at trip level, the Road Safety Index assesses an organisation’s governance, processes and safety culture. The FIA has described the two as complementary parts of a broader system for measuring road safety from corporate strategy through to day-to-day operations.
The FIA now has its first five-star example to use as the benchmark for organisations seeking to follow it.
