Dual-cab ute safety ranked on what ANCAP actually tested

Every dual-cab ute in this guide holds five ANCAP stars, which is a pass mark rather than a ranking. The category scores underneath run from 70 per cent to 93 per cent, on results published by ANCAP Safety. Dual-cab ute safety is decided in that gap, not on the badge in the window.

• What does a five-star ANCAP rating actually mean?
• Which dual-cab utes rate best on safety?
• What doesn’t a five-star rating tell you?
• So which dual-cab ute should you buy?

What does a five-star ANCAP rating actually mean?

A five-star rating means the ute cleared the minimum score ANCAP sets in four separate areas, not that it beat the ute parked next to it. Two utes can wear the same five stars and be very different vehicles to crash.

Adult occupant protection, the first of the four, measures how well the cabin protects the driver and front passenger across a set of crash tests. Child occupant protection does the same for kids restrained in the second row. Vulnerable road user protection scores what happens to a pedestrian or cyclist the ute strikes, along with the systems meant to prevent that impact. Safety assist scores the crash-avoidance technology, including autonomous emergency braking and lane support.

Each category is published as a percentage of the points on offer in that area. That makes the four numbers easy to line up against each other inside one set of criteria, and misleading the moment you compare across two. A percentage tells you how close a ute came to a full mark, not how hard the marker was being that year.

The scores matter more than the stars because ANCAP tightens its criteria every few years, and each rating is locked to the criteria in force when the vehicle was tested. ANCAP announced in April 2024 that the Mitsubishi Triton was the first dual-cab ute assessed against its tougher 2023 to 2025 criteria, and it still earned five stars.

You can see the criteria shift in the arithmetic. The Ford Ranger’s 84 per cent for adult occupant protection came from 32.24 of a possible 38 points, while the Toyota HiLux reached the same 84 per cent from 33.96 of a possible 40. Same percentage, different test.

Ratings also expire. The Ranger’s five stars were issued in 2022 and run out in December 2028, per ANCAP’s rating page for the model, while the HiLux rating dated 2025 holds until December 2031, according to its own page. That is a three-year gap in testing and a full change of criteria between two badges that look identical on a dealer sticker.

Which dual-cab utes rate best on safety?

On published category scores, the Toyota HiLux rated in 2025 has the most even result of the group, while the BYD Shark 6 has the strongest crash-avoidance scoring, per ANCAP Safety and RACQ. The Ford Ranger holds the best single result of any ute here for protecting children, though it earned it under older criteria, according to ANCAP.

The table below uses ANCAP’s published category scores for the Ford Ranger and the Toyota HiLux, the Kia Tasman result reported by the Australasian Fleet Management Association, and the BYD Shark 6 result reported by RACQ.

Ute	Rating year	Adult occupant	Child occupant	Vulnerable road user	Safety assist
Toyota HiLux	2025	84%	89%	82%	82%
BYD Shark 6	2025	85%	87%	74%	86%
Kia Tasman	2025	85%	85%	74%	80%
Ford Ranger	2022	84%	93%	74%	83%

The Mitsubishi Triton is covered below the table rather than in it, because the only category figure published in the ANCAP announcement referenced here is its safety assist score.

Toyota HiLux

The HiLux is the only ute here above 80 per cent in all four categories, at 84 per cent for adult occupants, 89 per cent for child occupants, 82 per cent for vulnerable road users and 82 per cent for safety assist, according to ANCAP Safety. Its vulnerable road user result is 8 percentage points clear of the Ranger, Tasman and Shark 6, which all sit at 74 per cent.

The catch is timing. ANCAP ties that rating to cars built from November 2025, on sale here from the following month, and it takes in the whole range bar the Rugged X, in diesel and battery-electric form alike. A HiLux built before that cut-off is a different vehicle carrying a different rating, so check the build plate rather than the sales year.

BYD Shark 6

The Shark 6 posts the highest safety assist score of the group at 86 per cent, with 85 per cent for adult occupant protection and 87 per cent for child occupant protection, RACQ reported in March 2025. Vulnerable road user protection sits at 74 per cent, level with the Ranger and Tasman.

It was also the first plug-in hybrid ute to reach five stars. “For fleets looking to electrify their light-commercial ute range, the Shark 6 presents a new five-star plug-in hybrid option.” That was Carla Hoorweg, chief executive of ANCAP Safety, in comments reported by RACQ. If crash-avoidance technology is what you weight most heavily, this is the ute that scores it best.

Kia Tasman

The Tasman scores 85 per cent for adult occupant protection, 85 per cent for child occupant protection, 74 per cent for vulnerable road users and 80 per cent for safety assist, as reported by the Australasian Fleet Management Association. That is a solid, unspectacular set with no category dragging it down.

ANCAP announced the result on 23 July 2025, making the Tasman the first Kia ute to carry a rating. Fleet buyers had been the ones watching hardest, since a large-volume order is difficult to sign off without a published result.

Fleet buyers and potential Tasman customers across the country have been eagerly awaiting the Tasman’s safety rating, and this five-star result will be welcome news.

Carla Hoorweg, chief executive officer, ANCAP Safety

Read the coverage carefully before you order, because it is narrower than the others in this group and several popular grades sit outside it.

Ford Ranger

The Ranger holds the best child occupant protection score of any ute here at 93 per cent, alongside 84 per cent for adult occupants, 74 per cent for vulnerable road users and 83 per cent for safety assist, per ANCAP Safety. For a family that spends most of its driving with kids in the back, that is the number that speaks loudest.

Attach the date to it. The rating was issued in 2022 under the criteria in force then, and ANCAP applies it to the XL, XLS, XLT, Sport and Wildtrak grades across the single, extended and dual cab bodies. A 93 per cent from 2022 was not measured against the same benchmark as an 89 per cent from 2025.

Mitsubishi Triton

The Triton earned its stars the hard way, as the first dual-cab ute tested against the 2023 to 2025 criteria when ANCAP announced the result in April 2024. Being first under a tougher standard is worth something on its own.

Its safety assist score of 70 per cent is the lowest recorded here, though ANCAP noted that the Triton watches the driver directly and satisfied the protocol for warning about fatigue and distraction, a technology still uncommon across the market at the time. “This rating demonstrates Mitsubishi’s determination and ability to design, build and deliver a five-star product.” That was Carla Hoorweg, chief executive of ANCAP Safety.

What doesn’t a five-star rating tell you?

It doesn’t tell you the ute standing in front of you is covered, because a rating applies only to the variants and build dates listed on it. The versions people most want are often the ones left off.

These four exclusions are set out by ANCAP for the Ranger, the HiLux and the Tasman.

• The Ranger Raptor sits outside the Ranger’s five-star rating.
• The Rugged X is the one HiLux variant left out of the 2025 rating.
• Kia’s result covers only 4×4 dual cab versions, so the X-Line and X-Pro grades fall outside it.
• Tasman 4×2, single-cab and dual cab-chassis models are yet to be tested.

That last point matters more than it sounds. A cab-chassis with a tray fitted is the default choice for a lot of trades, and if the rating was never issued for that body, the star count on the brochure is describing a different vehicle to the one going on the order form.

There is a second-row limit that catches families with three children. ANCAP recommends against fitting a child seat in the middle rear position of dual-cab Ranger and dual-cab HiLux models, because neither offers a top tether point in the middle. Two restraints across the back is the practical ceiling in both, which rules them out for a three-child household without a second car.

Age is the third thing the badge hides, and it matters most on the used lot. When ANCAP announced the Tasman result in July 2025, it listed the ute’s five-star rivals as the Ranger rated in 2022, the HiLux rated in 2019, the Isuzu D-MAX rated in 2022 and the Shark 6 rated in 2025, per its media release. A used HiLux from that period carries the 2019 result, not the newer one, even though the shape on the driveway looks similar.

So which dual-cab ute should you buy?

If published safety scores are your deciding factor and you are buying new, the Toyota HiLux rated in 2025 is the pick, because it is the only ute here without a weak category and the only one above 80 per cent across all four, per ANCAP Safety.

Best for a household that carries children daily and drives where pedestrians and cyclists are part of the traffic: the Toyota HiLux, whose 82 per cent vulnerable road user result leads this group by 8 percentage points, per ANCAP.

Not for you if you have your heart set on a Ranger Raptor, a HiLux Rugged X or a Tasman X-Line or X-Pro, because none of those variants is covered by the rating you would be buying on.

The BYD Shark 6 suits a buyer or a fleet manager who weights crash-avoidance technology heavily and wants a plug-in hybrid, on the strength of its 86 per cent safety assist score reported by RACQ. The Kia Tasman is the safe middle choice if you are buying a 4×4 dual cab and want a recent rating with no soft spot, though it gives up ground on pedestrian protection. The Ford Ranger still posts the best child occupant number in the segment at 93 per cent, per ANCAP, and if your back seat is full every day that is a fair reason to shortlist it, as long as you accept the rating dates from 2022.

The Mitsubishi Triton makes sense for a buyer who values driver monitoring and a rating earned under the newer criteria, and who does not mind the lowest safety assist score of the five, per ANCAP’s 2024 announcement.

Buying used changes the order. The scores in this guide belong to current cars, and an older example of the same nameplate may carry a rating from a different year against a softer standard, so look up the specific build rather than the model name.

Whichever way you go, do one thing before you sign. Check the exact variant and the build date against the rating listing on ANCAP’s site, because the star count in the advertisement is not always the rating attached to the ute you are being sold.