New era for car safety in Australia dawns
By Tom White · 09 Jul 2026
BMW’s incoming iX3, which wears the brand’s dramatic Neue Klasse design aesthetic, is the first car to be tested to ANCAP’s new safety regime.The iX3 scored a maximum five stars, scoring relatively highly across the safety body’s four new categories.The new categories include, Safe Driving (which rates driving support systems), Crash Avoidance (which rates hazard mitigation technologies), Crash Protection (which rates the vehicles crash structure and physical safety hardware) and Post Crash (which rates how well the systems on board the car assist first responders following a crash).“Over three decades of ANCAP influence, this is the most comprehensive ratings framework we’ve applied. We have again stepped up our assessment to capture and evaluate the many ways a modern car can protect its occupants and other road users,” ANCAP Chief Executive Carla Hoorweg said.“The BMW iX3 is the first model we’ve put through this new rating process, and its specification and performance have captured the essence of the new requirements.”It is unsurprising the BMW iX3 ranked so highly to the new standards, as it is designed to comply with EuroNCAP safety procedures, which ANCAP’s procedures are largely based. The iX3 was physically tested in Europe for the EuropNCAP score, which was applied to the ANCAP scale.ANCAP’s new rating system places more emphasis on safety systems calibrated well enough that car buyers are likely to leave them on.“Systems that irritate rather than improve the drive experience will be marked down, with lane keep systems now assessed on how naturally they interact with the driver, including steering response and driver override effort,” said Hoorweg.“The ‘smart coupling’ of driver alertness with safety system intervention is also now assessed. Vehicles that enhance – or minimise – their response according to the driver’s level of alertness are rewarded,” she addedIn what may come as a relief to many new car buyers, the Safe Driving pillar also scrutinises the existence of physical controls, although for now it is limited to only core functions like indicators, hazard lights, horn, gear selector and headlights.Some of the most frustrating touchscreen-based systems, like climate and multimedia controls, will get a free pass.The safety body also now ranks the accuracy of speed limit assist systems, which are also a frequent source of irritation in new vehicles.The iX3 ranked well enough for Safe Driving (71 per cent), marked down for the lack of some occupant detection features, some distraction monitoring function, and the adaptive cruise not responding entirely to road features like roundabouts.It ranked more highly in Crash Avoidance (83 per cent), with its auto emergency braking and lane keep systems scoring highly across most categories.It also scored well for Crash Protection (86 per cent) - which now involves extra crash dummies for more thorough testing. It was marked down slightly for vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility for presenting a “moderate risk to occupants of an oncoming vehicle if struck”.The Post Crash Pillar was the iX3’s highest ranking category (95 per cent), scoring high across all categories including its eCall feature, high-voltage battery isolation function and door handle functionality.Other new elements of ANCAP’s testing regime for the next few years include a new crash barrier test, more robust avoidance assessments, the assessment of rollover injuries, new “pothole” test which assesses the ability of the driver to maintain control of the car when avoiding road hazards, more intense whiplash testing, a motorcycle t-bone test, and “serious component failures” also carry a more dire penalty.The five-star ANCAP rating applies to both the 50 xDrive and 40 variants of the new iX3.