NZ-backed agency’s five star score is specific to our market.

A NEW budget electric car popular with Kiwis has received a strong safety pass from the national auditor.

The crash test rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Programme comes with a twist – though that independent assessor is based in Australia, the five star rating it has meted the BYD Atto 3 only holds sway for now in New Zealand.

ANCAP did not directly test the car. The score mirrors the five-star score the Chinese EV has also just achieved in Euro NCAP testing, which is aligned to ANCAP and generally carries over.

BYD’s ANCAP scores were 91 percent for adult occupant protection, 84 percent for child occupant protection, 69 percent for vulnerable road-user protection, and 80 percent 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”.

The Australia-market version remained unrated as it lacks a child-seat top tether anchorage point for the centre-rear seat, which is a must-have for new five-seater passenger vehicles sold in Australia.

Other Atto 3 news of the moment is that prices increased on October 1.

The entry-level 50kWh battery edition announced at $52,900 is now $55,990 and the 60kWh battery Extended variant now costs $59,990, having kicked into the market three months ago at $57,990.

Atto 3 was also the second best-selling EV in the country last month, though a long way short of the dominant type, the Tesla Model Y