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Additional data was provided to validate the safety assessment of the Tiggo 4, Tiggo 7, and Tiggo 8, according to Chery.
Chery has defended the use of ANCAP’s ‘partner model’ rules that saw the Chinese brand use one physical crash test for the basis of a five-star rating across its three distinctly different-sized SUVs – the Tiggo 4, Tiggo 7, and Tiggo 8.
Speaking to Drive, Chery Australia Chief Operating Officer Lucas Harris said the process for applying one crash-test rating across multiple models is more complex than what appears on the surface.
“We’ve got models that have partner ratings that have been applied, and it’s not as simple as us just saying ‘oh yeah, it’s the same platform, can you just transfer the rating?’,” Harris said.
“The amount of technical information that has to be provided is wild; we’re talking in-depth technical drawings.
“I don’t know about other brands, but when we do it, we do in-house crash-testing and provide them all the data that we would normally get.
“And when I say all the data, I mean all the data – a million photos, videos, telemetry from the car and from the robots, everything.
“It’s not as simple as them going ‘ah, it kind of looks the same, let’s share the rating’, there’s a huge amount of technical work underneath it.
“I know from the outside, looking in without that information, it looks a little haphazard.”
As a reminder, the Tiggo 7 was crash-tested by ANCAP in 2023, with the same results applied to the larger Tiggo 8 and smaller Tiggo 4 under the safety organisation’s ‘partner model’ rules.
According to ANCAP, a partner model “has the same relationship to the originally tested vehicle as a variant (same brand) but has a different model name”.
“All important structural elements related to safety performance must be the same as the originally tested vehicle. Where these differ, additional data is required,” the ANCAP definition states.
There are also rules about the varying size and weight the partner model must adhere to when compared to the original tested vehicle, to which the three Chery SUVs follow.
Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.
