The Sea lion world 5Plug-in hybrid SUV (PHEV) is on independent safety agency ANCAP’s crash testing hit list, although the Chinese automaker has withdrawn its plans to provide a vehicle for testing.
The Sealion 5, a rival to the Mitsubishi Outlander and coming Toyota RAV4 PHEVs were introduced earlier this year.
The automaker said it had withdrawn previous plans to offer a Sealion 5 to ANCAP for testing and instead prioritized a safety assessment for its first seven-seat SUV Sea lion 8 PHEV.
The company has provided the Sealion 8 for ANCAP testing, but does not offer the Sealion 5. This makes it one of two BYD models, along with the model without a rating, that are sold here without a rating Act 2. All other models achieved a five-star result.
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“Due to the priority of resources and also constraints on testing availability and testing lab availability, we had to prioritize our models and so Sealion 8 was our priority,” BYD Australia Chief Product Officer Sajid Hasan told the media at the Sealion 5 launch.
According to ANCAP, there was a flurry of activity on changes to the 2026 protocols in the second half of last year as manufacturers rushed to get vehicles tested before the new regime came into effect.
This may have been a factor in the Sealion 5 not being tested before order books opened late last year.
“Whether ANCAP wants to test the vehicle is up to them,” a BYD Australia spokesperson said Daily Sparkz.
“Our position is to advance ANCAP testing for vehicles that come into our market and are at the beginning of their product life cycle. This is a bit of an anomaly with the Sealion 5 as we introduced this car in the middle of its life cycle; there is not much we can do about it.”
At an event in Belgium, ANCAP CEO Carla Hoorweg told the media, among other things: Daily Sparkzthe safety agency actually has the necessary resources to conduct tests on the Sealion 5.
This means that while the Sealion 5 may have missed out on testing in 2025, it may instead be among the first vehicles to be evaluated under the new protocols. The first tests are expected in April/May before the first assessment is published in July 2026.
“The Sealion 5 is not currently evaluated and can therefore definitely be tested in our program,” said Ms. Hoorweg.
When asked whether this meant that the BYD would definitely be tested, she replied: “Basically, any vehicle without a registration is always suitable for testing.”
“The work we do in terms of selecting vehicles is quite extensive. We look at how much volume does the car sell; what segment is it in?” Ms. Hoorweg explained.
The medium SUV segment in which the Sealion 5 competes was the largest in Australia with 312,409 sales in 2025, accounting for a quarter (25.2 percent) of all new vehicle sales.
BYD is aiming for around 600 Sealion 5 sales per month, which would put it around the middle of the category. A total of 196 sales were recorded last month when the first goods arrived.
While the Sealion 5 is in the largest segment in terms of volume, the Sealion 8 PHEV is in the large SUV category, with competitors such as the Omoda 9, Kia Sorento And Mazda CX-80 PHEVs.
The large SUV segment, while still significant, recorded 164,558 sales in 2025, accounting for 13.3 percent of all new vehicle sales, but trailing the medium SUV segment’s 312,409 sales.
Ms. Hoorweg also explained other factors that influence testing:
“Where are the other cars in this segment? Are they rated? Is the vehicle going into a segment where it’s not rated and everything else in that segment is rated?” she said.
“Because that’s not fair to those who have gone through the program, and then it can create a kind of free-rider situation.”
The Toyota RAV4, Australia’s best-selling mid-size SUV, has a five-star ANCAP rating that expires December 31, 2025. A new model is expected to arrive in showrooms this year and is expected to be tested in 2026.
Other best-selling midsize SUVs, including the Mitsubishi Outlander, Tesla Model Y and BYD’s own Sealion 6 and Sealion 7 models, also have a five-star ANCAP rating.
On paper, the Sealion 5 appears to meet the ANCAP rating criteria for a vehicle competing against safety-rated rivals in a popular segment.
“It’s also partly related to the funding that we have, the capital that we can put to test… so as we move into 2026 we will determine our program and which vehicles we will test.”
MORE: Explore the BYD Sealion 5 showroom
