Focus on Box’s safety status upsets distributor: 'Unrated' doesn't mean ANCAP zero

NZ agent says the unflattering rating for NZ’s cheapest electric car is causing confusion for those used to ANCAP stars.

REPRESENTING the country’s cheapest electric car while it holds an unfavourable safety specification is fine with the type’s distributor - but publicity about what this means has rattled.

The Dongfeng Box currently on sale in New Zealand has just two airbags, frontal devices for the driver and front seat passenger - a light count not seen in new cars for years.

In export configuration to left-hand drive countries it configures with six, a far more typical provision in the sector, and also provisions with more driver assist functions, plus an emergency calling feature.

National rights’ holder Auto Distributors Limited, owned by Christchurch auto industry magnate Rick Armstrong, says it is working to achieve the small city-centric model with more airbags, but cannot say when that might happen.

Meantime, it is confident the car’s other safety provisions are already good enough to reduce chance of occupant injury, or worse, in an accident.

It said today it could not achieve the car with the side and curtain airbags that come in left-hand drive, because that was Dongfeng’s current configuration for right-hand drive.

ADL says it nonetheless has had no qualms about putting it on sale.

Asked what factors determined ADL being happy to sign off nonetheless, a spokesperson said today it came down to the model still having a host of active crash avoidance technologies - all of which act to prevent an incident, rather than involve at moment of a crash, where airbags remain a primary tool for ensuring occupant wellbeing.

“We are confident the vehicle's advanced driver assistance system, including lane keep assist, camera-based intelligent speed assistance, brake assist and highway driving assist, offer features which assist in the prevention of an accident.”

With that in mind, the spokesperson said recent publicity about the Box had jarred, because it inferred that the safety rating it holds is akin to to the lowest score from a test protocol it has not been assessed to.

“It (the coverage) infers that the Box has zero stars rather than it being unrated.”

To understand the meaning of that statement requires comprehension of the different ratings that apply in NZ.

The ‘unrated’ status is on the Rightcars.co.nz website and has been determined by NZTA Waka Kotahi, the Government agency responsible for safe and functional land transport, and by Australian New Car Assessment Programme (ANCAP).

The latter is the independent crash test specialist whose determinations have highest national accreditation.

However, the car has not been tested by ANCAP, because Dongfeng is one of the few export brands in China not to yet selling in Australia, so lacks the Melbourne-based specialist’s star rating. 

Instead, it has been judged to the guidelines used for a Vehicle Safety Risk Rating (VSSR), a less rigid NZ-specific rating generally applied to used import cars that are not officially sold outside of Japan. 

‘Unrated’ is the lowest score on the VSSR scale. NZTA said it assigned that status “… after it was identified the Dongfeng Box has a lower level of crash protection than would normally be expected for a 2025 vehicle.”

The determination is significant because vehicles without a valid overseas crash rating typically receive a default five-star VSSR.

The publication that first aired the story said ANCAP had made it clear why the European test results cannot be applied to the New Zealand car. 

“ANCAP is aware that the Dongfeng Box currently being sold in New Zealand is a different specification to the vehicle recently assessed by Euro NCAP,” ANCAP Chief Executive Officer Carla Hoorweg was quoted as saying.

Focus on the Box is especially warranted because, at $29,990, it presently stands as the country’s cheapest new car electric, a status that raised huge interest when it released in November.

Back then, Dongfeng and ADL referenced the car having earlier in 2025 received a three star crash test rating from Euro NCAP, a sister body to ANCAP, with commonality in crash test procedure.

Euro NCAP criticised the Box for it demonstrating a structurally unstable body, as spot welds failed. It also said an airbag deployed with insufficient pressure, causing head impact, and doors remained locked post-crash. Euro NCAP aired concerns about its real-world protection. 

ADL at the NZ launch in turn argued that, on ANCAP’s scoring system, the Box came just a couple of points short of achieving four stars, out of a maximum five.

The car tested by Euro NCAP had six airbags. At that time, it was not clear that the NZ-spec product was more sparsely equipped.

The subsequent rating placed on the Rightcar website clarified this. ADL’s brochure for the car also lists it having two airbags.

On this, the ADL spokesperson said: “The Euro NCAP three-star result relates to a European left-hand-drive specification, which differs from the NZ right-hand-drive model. 

“That configuration was and is not currently available in right-hand-drive.

“ADNZ is in discussions with Dongfeng regarding when left-hand drive specification with additional airbags may become available for right-hand-drive markets.”

ADL was asked if any improvement in count would that update prohibit it maintaining the current price tag - which has been cited as introductory offer set to increased by $3000 - and how much extra might it add to the sticker.

The spokesperson said that information is not currently available.

ADL says 50 examples of the car were sold between launch and the end of 2025, a strong enough performance for it to finish in the top 10 best-selling EV brands not just for December but the final quarter of last year.

A second Dongfeng car, the Vigo, has since announced. It has a five star VSSR.