ANCAP has announced a five-star safety rating for all variants of the battery electric BYD Dolphin, awarded against the new 2023 criteria. Carla Hoorweg, ANCAP Chief Executive Officer, said the 2023 test and rating criteria introduced additional requirements for structural protection and new challenges for manufacturers in the area of active safety systems.
ADULT OCCUPANT PROTECTION
The passenger compartment remained stable in the frontal offset (MPDB) test. Dummy readings indicated marginal protection for the driver’s chest and adequate protection for the lower legs. while protection of the front passenger chest was also adequate. Protection for all other critical body regions for the driver and the front passenger was good.
The front structure presented a lower risk to occupants of an oncoming vehicle in the MPDB test (which evaluates vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility), and a 1.82-point penalty was applied.
In the full width frontal test, chest protection of the driver dummy, along with the neck and chest of the rear passenger were adequate, with good protection of all other critical body areas. In the side impact test, protection offered to all critical body regions of the driver was good and full points were scored.
In the oblique pole test, protection was adequate for the driver’s chest and good for all other critical body regions.
The Dolphin is equipped with a centre airbag to protect against occupant-to-occupant interaction in side impacts and provided good protection for the head of both front seat occupants. Prevention of excursion (movement towards the other side of the vehicle) in the far side impact tests was assessed as adequate for the vehicle-to-vehicle impact scenario and vehicle-to-pole scenario.
A rescue sheet providing information for first responders in the event of a crash is available, and a multi-collision braking system is fitted. It was demonstrated that if the car entered water, the doors and windows would remain functional for the minimum-required time.
CHILD OCCUPANT PROTECTION
In the frontal offset and side impact tests, protection of the 10-year and six-year dummies was good and maximum points were scored for all body regions in these tests.
The Dolphin is fitted with lower ISOFix anchorages on the rear outboard seats and top tether anchorages for all rear seating positions. A direct child presence detection (CPD) system, which provides an alert when a child has been left in the vehicle, is fitted to all passenger seats as standard. However, the system did not meet ANCAP’s requirements and was not rewarded with points.
Installation of typical child restraints available in Australia showed most child restraints could be accommodated in most rear seating positions. However, the rearward-facing capsule could not be correctly installed in the rear outboard seating positions and one of the selected booster seats could not be correctly installed in the centre rear seating position.
VULNERABLE ROAD USER PROTECTION
In physical impact tests, protection offered to the head of a pedestrian striking the bonnet, or cyclist striking the windscreen, was predominantly adequate and good, with marginal and poor results recorded at the base of the windscreen and on the stiff windscreen pillars. Protection of the pelvis, femurs, and lower legs was good.
The autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system is capable of detecting and reacting to vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Testing of this system showed good performance in pedestrian test scenarios including turning scenarios, with collisions avoided or mitigated in most tests. However, marginal performance was seen in reverse (AEB back over) scenarios.
Good performance was seen in cyclist test scenarios with collisions avoided or mitigated at all test speeds, including in the turning scenarios. However, marginal performance was seen in the cyclist “dooring” scenarios, where only a warning is provided to alert the driver of a passing cyclist.
Good performance was seen in the AEB motorcycle tests, including in the turning and in overtaking scenarios, earning full points.
SAFETY ASSIST
In addition to AEB, which is capable of functioning at highway speeds, the Dolphin is equipped with a lane support system with lane keep assist, lane departure warning and blind spot monitoring.
Tests of the AEB (car-to-car) system showed good performance with collisions avoided or mitigated in most test scenarios, with good and adequate performance in AEB junction and AEB crossing scenarios where the test vehicle can autonomously brake to avoid crashes when turning across or into the path of an oncoming vehicle.
Assessment of the AEB head-on system functionality showed adequate performance.
Tests of lane support system functionality showed good performance, including in several of the more critical emergency lane keeping test scenarios.
A speed assistance system with speed limit information function is standard, informing the driver of the local speed limit and allowing the driver to accept the change in speed accordingly. Intelligent adaptive cruise control is also standard.
A seatbelt reminder system with occupancy detection is fitted to all seating positions, while a driver monitoring system (DMS) detecting driver drowsiness (indirect) is also fitted as standard. A direct DMS is not available.