BYD Atto 3 gets five-star safety rating in Europe and NZ, but not Australia

The hyped BYD Atto 3 EV has been awarded a five-star crash rating by safety tester ANCAP – but only for the New Zealand market.

It remains unrated in Australia, and we’re currently trying to determine why.

The score mirrors the five-star score the budget Chinese EV has also just achieved in Euro NCAP testing, which is aligned to ANCAP and generally carries over.

However, Australian models remain unrated, with ANCAP saying it’s now “working with BYD to finalise the applicability of a rating for Australian-specified models”.

The BYD’s ANCAP scores were 91 per cent for adult occupant protection, 84 per cent for child occupant protection, 69 per cent for vulnerable road-user protection, and 80 per cent for safety assist features.

“This five-star ANCAP safety rating for the BYD Atto 3 will no doubt come as welcome news to New Zealand buyers looking for a safe and green choice within its price-point,” said ANCAP chief executive Carla Hoorweg.

ANCAP said full scores were achieved for protection provided to the driver in the side impact and far-side impact tests. Whiplash protection for front and rear seat occupants also scored highly, and maximum points were achieved for the protection of child occupants in the side impact and frontal offset crash tests.

The active safety capability of the Atto 3 was shown to be of “a high standard”, with the standard-fit pedestrian and cyclist-detecting autonomous emergency braking system offering “good levels of performance in forward, reverse, daytime and night-time test scenarios”.

We have reached out to ANCAP to find out more on why the Australian Atto 3 is unrated, and when this will change.

BYD is distributed in NZ by Ateco, which imports LDV, Renault and Maserati in Australia. BYD’s distributor for Australia is a different company, called EVDirect.

Atto 3s in NZ and Australia both come with seven airbags, lane assist, cross-traffic alert, and AEB. Installation of child restraints in the centre seating position of the second row is not recommended as there is no top tether anchorage, though it’s classified as a five-seater.

More to come as soon as possible…