BYD Atto 3 has been one of Australia’s most highly anticipated EVs this year. As these popular ground-up EVs start to roll out to local customers and in Europe, Euro NCAP has now announced the date we may see test results from their crash tests of the Atto 3.
What does this upcoming update mean for local customers and why the results could be important for Australia’s EV uptake?
Euro NCAP Results only weeks away
On Thursday, Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme) which crash tests and assesses cars for safety released an updated image showcasing the BYD Atto 3.
The image came with a caption of the date when the next round of results from their recent crash testing will be released. It’s only weeks away on Wednesday the 12th of October.
The image did not make it clear if BYD Atto 3 would be included in the results with the post caption saying:
“New Euro NCAP results coming 12 October”.
This did cause some confusion with a user asking for clarification on if the Atto 3 would be included in the October results. Euro NCAP replied by saying
“Normally it should be. We are waiting for the active safety results from the lab 😉”
That’s a positive update for many thousands of customers who are eager to take delivery of this affordable ground-up EV here in Australia and in Europe.
This is also a good sign of what could be to come from Australia’s local crash testing team at ANCAP.
So why is this significant for EV uptake in Australia?
ANCAP results to cause a big shift in demand and EV uptake
In 2021, nearly 50% of all vehicles sold in Australia were by fleet buyers. These included businesses, government and rental fleets.
With many fleet purchases, there has been an expectation to purchase a vehicle with 5 star ANCAP rating. This is one of the main criteria that many fleet customers are looking for when purchasing large volumes of cars.
With Euro NCAP announcing a date for BYD Atto 3’s safety test results, it’d be not long before ANCAP will be following suit.
A safety rating of 5 would mean that the new Atto 3 would become quite attractive for fleet buyers.
That is likely to shift the needle up in large fleet purchases of the BYD Atto 3 over other EVs that are less affordable.
It’s also based on what volumes BYD can also deliver to Australia over the 12 months but looking at recent production data from the company, it’s more likely to see thousands of BYD EVs on our roads in the next 12 months.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.