The LDV T60 could be the first Chinese-made vehicle to get a five-star ANCAP score. The brand is clearly hoping that’ll be the case.
The 2018 LDV T60 dual-cab 4×4 ute is aimed at business buyers and private drivers alike, with aggressive pricing and strong equipment lists offered for each variant.
There’s undoubtedly a stigma around Chinese vehicles and the levels of safety they offer, and that’s something LDV and its parent company SAIC – one of the largest automotive companies on the planet – are aiming to address.
Hao Jingxian, chief technical officer for SAIC, told Australian media that there’s a very good chance the new ute will be the first Chinese-built vehicle offered in Australia to attain the highest possible safety score.
“We already passed all the certification tests for the Australian market, including the ANCAP five-star,” Jingxian said – but it must be clear, he wasn’t stating that a five-star score has been awarded, only that the company expects that will be the case.
“We’ve already done all the tests and the repairs [engineering fixes for any shortcomings] and we are confident we will reach the ANCAP five-star score, and this final approval will be announced soon,” he said.
It’s fair to suggest the LDV T60 is the safest Chinese ute ever, purely based on the standard specification offered. Even in the base model the T60 has a rear-view camera, rear parking sensors, blind-spot monitoring and six airbags.
It doesn’t get some of the more fancied items that the D90 SUV will get, like radar cruise control, forward collision warning and autonomous emergency braking.
MORE: LDV T60 pricing and specs
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