MG prepared to skip five-star ANCAP rating to keep cars affordable

MG has vowed to continue to offer affordable models to Australian customers, despite that likely coming at the expense of a five-star safety rating from independent body, ANCAP.

While MG has earned the maximum safety score for its recently launched MG4 electric car and its HS mid-size SUV, the incoming MG5 small sedan is likely to score poorly under ANCAP’s latest testing regime.

MG Australia is set to offer the MG5 locally with only the safety features required by law, including six airbags, autonomous emergency braking, anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control.

Crucially, it will not be available with any of the modern active safety features that are commonplace and effectively required to achieve a five-star score from ANCAP. These include lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, rear cross-traffic alert and blind-spot monitoring, as well as the likes of traffic sign recognition and drive attention assist. Some of these features are offered in the MG5 in other markets, such as China and Thailand.

This means the MG5 will, if tested by ANCAP, likely score three stars or less and will also likely come in for criticism from the safety authority.

But MG Australia boss, Peter Ciao, is adamant that this is the right move for his brand.

He believes the MG5 and the level of safety it offers is respectable and, crucially, will allow him to price the MG5 for less than $30,000. The MG5 Vibe starts at $24,990 drive-away and the Essence model from $28,990 drive-away, undercutting the similar-sized Toyota Corolla sedan by more than $5000.

Asked if moving forward with ANCAP’s latest testing regime - which is updated every three years - a car under $40,000 will be able to score five-stars in future, Ciao was broadly supportive of ANCAP and its efforts to improve safety for motorists, but said it would come at a cost.

"This is a very serious fact," Ciao said. "ANCAP each three years change their technical standards. From our side, if we want to catch-up to the standard, the development cost, the factory cost, the material cost, the technical cost, everything will go up," he said.

"This is why 10 years ago under $30,000 you could very easily get five stars and now it’s very difficult. So… this rule is pushing the OEM and the developer into better technology for this market, because this rule encourages new technology, better technology for the market."

Critically, Ciao indicated that he wants MG to continue to offer more affordable options, with the MG3 and MG5 both priced under $30,000, even as the brand prepares for a more upmarket push.

"How to look after one million customers, because the new-car market is one million customers every year in Australia and about two million are used cars," Ciao said. "So how [do we] look after these three million customers? [At] MG the strategy will always provide different options for different people."

It is unclear at this stage if the MG5 will be subjected to ANCAP crash testing as the organisation typically doesn’t reveal which cars it has crashed until it publishes the results.