BYD Atto 3 gets a five-star ANCAP rating

It’s been a wild ride for BYD in Australia, and for the thousands who put their money down to buy the car pretty much sight unseen, but today the ANCAP results for the ATTO 3 are out, and it’s a five-star rating.

New Zealand’s BYD Atto 3 got a five star rating a month ago, but suspiciously the Aussie ANCAP score was delayed.

Then deliveries of the cars were halted while an Australian Design Rule compliance check was undertaken. It seems now that that halt may well have been almost entirely related to this ANCAP rating.

The ANCAP result clearly states that the five star rating applies to cars built from this date, or that have had the “brand initiated updates” that remove the switch that allows the front passenger airbag to be disabled, removes the ability to use the front passenger seat for a child restraint and exposes the top tether for a child restraint in the rear middle seat. Simple things, clearly overlooked by BYD when bringing the car into the market, but nothing that more than a tiny percentage of buyers would have been affected by.

A five-star rating puts it alongside the previous model MG ZS EV, which had a lower score for safety systems, but the newer model ZS EV has not received an ANCAP rating.