Sub-$40,000 electric MG4 gets five star safety rating under new protocols

One of Australia’s most affordable EVs, the upcoming MG4, has  received a five star ANCAP safety rating. The results came after being assessed under ANCAP’s new rating criteria.

The MG4 is the first MG to receive this rating under the recent rating criteria, and did so despite the autonomous emergency breaking system being unable to detect pedestrians while the car is in reverse.

“The MG 4 Electric is the first MG model to achieve five-stars under ANCAP’s 2020-2022 protocols,” ANCAP Chief Executive, Carla Hoorweg said in a statement.

MG4 received high scores in a few of the 4 key areas. The awarded results from ANCAP were:

• 83% for Adult Occupant protection
• 86% for Child Occupant protection
• 81% for Safety Assist features
• 75% for Vulnerable Road User protection

This all-electric hatchback is fitted with various collision detection and avoidance technologies to help it achieve these results, including:

• Autonomous emergency braking (AEB)
• Active keep assist 
• Fatigue monitoring

The AEB performed well when tested against scenarios emulating cyclists and a few car-to-car collision tests. But the  system was not available to detect pedestrians when the vehicle was in reverse.

Lane-keep assist also showed good performance in various tests and was adequate in emergency lane-keeping situations.

For adult occupant protection, the MG4 received a good score in the side impact and oblique pole tests. Similarly, the car showed low injury to occupants of oncoming vehicles.

Positive scores were obtained by the hatchback in the protection of children in the front and side collision tests as well.

One area of improvement identified is the lack of a centre airbag to prevent contact between the front passengers in a collision. 

Full MG 4 safety test video by ANCAP