How safe are American pick-ups and large utes that are popular among Australian buyers but can pose a threat to other road users? ANCAP has tested the crash avoidance tech of 5 top utes to find out.
Safety
Safest car overall and safest medium SUV: Tesla Model Y
The safest cars, utes and SUVs in Australia: ANCAP best performers in 2025
Tesla Model Y is judged the safest car in Australia for 2025 as ANCAP reveals the top safety performers across SUV, ute and passenger car segments – and all except Toyota HiLux are Chinese-built EVs.
The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) has named the best safety performers for 2025 in the most popular vehicle segments in Australia, including SUVs, utes and traditional passenger cars.
The latest Tesla Model Y SUV is deemed the safest car overall in Australia, achieving the highest weighted score of any vehicle assessed by the leading independent safety authority last year.
This weighted scoring, which was employed to find the safest vehicles in each major category, is based on ANCAP’s four pillars of assessment in 2025: adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, vulnerable road user protection and ‘Safety Assist’ (advanced driver assistance systems). There is a high emphasis on physical crash protection and 40 per cent of the overall weighting is applied to adult occupant protection.
With one exception, the safest new cars in Australia for 2025 – covering medium, large and small SUVs, utes and small, medium and large passenger cars – are all electric vehicles built in China. The outlier is the new-generation diesel-powered 2026 Toyota HiLux – which will soon be available with a battery-electric powertrain for the first time.
Safest car overall and safest medium SUV: Tesla Model Y
Safest small SUV: MG S5 EV
Safest large SUV: Volvo EX90
Safest ute: Toyota HiLux
Safest small car: Mini Cooper E
Safest medium car: Tesla Model 3
Safest large car: MG IM5
According to ANCAP, “these vehicles set the benchmark for safety performance in 2025, showing consumers and fleets the safest options in each segment”. That includes many other cars assessed in 2025 that received the same overall five-star rating.
“ANCAP’s testing continues to reinforce a clear message: the safest vehicles are those designed with safety as a system, not a checklist,” says ANCAP CEO Carla Hoorweg. “The top performers delivered consistent results across physical crash protection, crash avoidance and vulnerable road user safety, rather than relying on strength in a single area.”
Here are the key details for each of Australia’s safest cars in 2025.
More: Research and compare new cars, SUVs and utes on sale today in Australia
Australia’s top-selling EV, the Tesla Model Y, is the safest car ANCAP tested in 2025.
Safest car overall & safest medium SUV in Australia – Tesla Model Y
Adult Occupant Protection: 91%
Child Occupant Protection: 95%
Vulnerable Road User Protection: 86%
Safety Assist: 92%
This is the second time the Tesla Model Y electric family SUV has been named Australia’s safest car, with the pre-facelifted model awarded ANCAP’s top performer in 2022. In 2025 testing, ANCAP highlighted the latest Model Y’s strong adult and child protection scores, as well as its top score among all vehicles assessed under the 2023-2025 protocols for Safety Assist technology (92%). The Tesla Model Y was also rated RACV’s ‘Best medium electric car and SUV’ for 2025.
More: Research and compare Tesla Model Y models on sale today
The MG S5 EV scored well for adult occupant protection in frontal crash tests, helping it achieve class honours as the safest small SUV.
Safest small SUV in Australia – MG S5 EV
Adult Occupant Protection: 90%
Child Occupant Protection: 86%
Vulnerable Road User Protection: 82%
Safety Assist: 79%
In its assessment of the new MG S5 electric small SUV, which is one of the cheapest EVs in Australia, ANCAP described the overall result as encouraging “following a series of mixed safety outcomes for MG in recent times”. The high adult occupant protection score is noted, while the child occupant result was impacted by slightly less neck injury protection for the 10-year-old dummy in the frontal offset test. Protection for motorcyclists in the vulnerable road user category was rated ‘marginal’, as was the performance of autonomous emergency braking (AEB) when reversing.
The Volvo EX90 offers high levels of crash protection for adult and child occupants, while advanced technology helps avoid a crash occurring at all.
Safest large SUV in Australia – Volvo EX90
Adult Occupant Protection: 92%
Child Occupant Protection: 94%
Vulnerable Road User Protection: 82%
Safety Assist: 84%
As with the other safest cars for 2025, the Volvo EX90 electric large SUV impressed with a high adult occupant protection score. In its assessment, ANCAP also highlighted the luxury SUV’s advanced driver monitoring system with unresponsive-driver intervention, which can take control when it detects the driver is unresponsive and bring the vehicle to a safe stop. The EX90 was rated by RACV as one of the best seven-seater electric cars in Australia last year.
The new Toyota HiLux came out on top as the safest ute tested by ANCAP in 2025, performing well in all areas of assessment.
Safest ute in Australia – Toyota HiLux
Adult Occupant Protection: 84%
Child Occupant Protection: 89%
Vulnerable Road User Protection: 82%
Safety Assist: 82%
Several highly anticipated new utes went on sale in Australia during 2025, and among these the new-generation Toyota HiLux was deemed the safest of them all. ANCAP noted its broadened suite of safety features, including a centre airbag and enhanced AEB functionality. HiLux provided consistently good performance in testing across all four assessment pillars but was penalised for the risk posed by its frontal structure to occupants of oncoming vehicles.
More: Research and compare Toyota HiLux models on sale today
This is how the Mini Cooper E looked after colliding with a pole in Euro NCAP testing, informing ANCAP results for Australia.
Safest small car in Australia – Mini Cooper E
Adult Occupant Protection: 89%
Child Occupant Protection: 83%
Vulnerable Road User Protection: 77%
Safety Assist: 83%
This category includes new small and ‘light’ cars launched in Australia during 2025, and the new-generation Mini Cooper E proved to be a solid performer in key areas of assessment. ANCAP noted a mix of ‘good’ and ‘adequate’ results in the physical crash tests. It also issued a word of caution for anyone considering using the Mini Cooper E to transport young children, owing to the difficulty in being able to see the Isofix visual indicators on some child restraints. Also see RACV’s guide to ‘Australia’s safest baby and child car seats’ for 2025.
More: Research and compare Mini Cooper E models on sale today
Next to the Model Y, the Tesla Model 3 was a standout performer in European and Australasian NCAP testing, proving to be one of the safest cars on the road.
Safest medium car in Australia – Tesla Model 3
Adult Occupant Protection: 90%
Child Occupant Protection: 95%
Vulnerable Road User Protection: 89%
Safety Assist: 88%
Closely related to the Tesla Model Y, the upgraded Tesla Model 3 achieved similarly high scores in ANCAP testing during 2025 that placed the electric family sedan at the top of its class. As well as delivering strong adult occupant protection, the Model 3’s child occupant safety performance was outstanding at 95 per cent. ANCAP also praised the EV for its active bonnet system that’s designed to reduce pedestrian injury risk by lifting the bonnet surface upon impact, increasing clearance from underlying hard structures.
More: Research and compare Tesla Model 3 models on sale today
The premium position of the MG IM5 was also reflected in its ANCAP result, outperforming all other large sedans in 2025 to be declared the safest.
Safest large car in Australia – MG IM5
Adult Occupant Protection: 89%
Child Occupant Protection: 91%
Vulnerable Road User Protection: 85%
Safety Assist: 79%
MG launched its premium electric IM sub-brand during 2025 and the MG IM5 large family sedan was found by ANCAP to combine strong structural performance with effective crash restraint systems. Adult and child occupants were well protected in the various crash tests, while the car’s ability to reliably respond to pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists in AEB straight-line and turning scenarios was also praised.
The information provided is general advice only. Before making any decisions please consider your own circumstances and the Product Disclosure Statement and Target Market Determinations. For copies, visit racv.com.au. As distributor, RACV Insurance Services Pty Ltd AFS Licence No. 230039 receives commission for each policy sold or renewed. Product(s) issued by Insurance Manufacturers of Australia Pty Ltd ABN 93 004 208 084 AFS Licence No. 227678.
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