The Deepal E07 Multitruck is the latest model to breach an Australian Design Rule (ADR) regarding child seat anchorage points.
Last week, Deepal Australia confirmed this Daily Sparkz It had “temporarily paused sales and deliveries of the MY25 E07 to complete necessary compliance work.” The company also said it would contact affected customers directly and provide updates.
While the company confirmed that the matter was “not security-related,” it declined to confirm what the compliance issue was and how it was resolved.
Now the company has emailed existing owners of its large five-seat SUV, which can be transformed into something of a pickup truck by extending the rear glass roof and lowering the tailgate, to confirm what the problem is. And as expected it refers to ADR 34/03 (anchorages for child restraint systems).
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“Certain MY25 Deepal E07 vehicles were manufactured without a child restraint anchorage in the rear center seat position as required by Australian Design Rule 34/03,” reads the email shared by a user on the Deepal E07 Australia Group on Facebook.
“Without a child restraint anchor in the rear center seat position, a child restraint system cannot be used in the center seat position.
“If a child seat is installed in the middle rear seat position without an appropriate anchor point, the restraint belt may not function as designed and there is a risk of an accident, increasing the risk of injury to the child occupant.
“This is considered a breach of regulations and Deepal Australia will therefore be undertaking a recall campaign to address the issue.”
The shared email does not specify a fix or time frame for deployment to existing owners.
ADR 34/03 came into force on November 1, 2019 for all newly introduced vehicles and from November 1, 2022 for all vehicles for sale.
BYD was forced to suspend deliveries of its Atto 3 electric SUV in 2022 due to this regulation, and Honda famously launched its second-generation HR-V small SUV here as a four-seater in the same year, rather than developing a solution to our specific regulations.
Despite these high-profile cases, Tesla launched its updated Model 3 sedan in late 2023, even though it did not comply with this regulation. This meant that the American car brand had to interrupt sales and recall vehicles that had already been delivered so that a remedy could be found.
Now, about two years after Tesla’s recall and more than six years after the regulation went into effect, Deepal is ceasing sales and will issue a recall to address its non-compliant E07.
Several brands have criticized the Australian government for issuing specific regulations that differ from those abroad.
Mitsubishi has criticized a number of strict ADRs, including ADR 34/03, while Nissan cited this regulation as one of the reasons why its Ariya electric SUV was so late to market.
Following these comments, the Australian government announced a review in late 2024 of how ADRs could be harmonized with other markets and how the local homologation process could be improved to reduce the cost and time required to register a vehicle for road use here.
The federal government invited the public to attend the 2024-25 ADR harmonization review led by Dr. Warren Mundy to voice. The submission deadline is Friday, January 24, 2025.
The government said the purpose of this review is “not to rethink the content of individual ADRs” but to examine how closely our ADRs align with international standards and how these can be better aligned – and what risks and opportunities lie in adopting United Nations (UN) standards and “transforming” them into ADRs.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, the governing body for car brands in Australia, said in its submission that ADR 34 should – among other things – be withdrawn and replaced with UN regulations.
The aim of the review was to “identify practical changes to current harmonization practices that will reduce the regulatory and administrative burden of providing road vehicles to the Australian market and remove any unnecessary barriers to productivity without compromising road safety objectives”.
The results of this review have yet to be published.
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