Mazda Australia ‘comfortable’ with current homologation rules despite Nissan, Mitsubishi resistance

Mazda Australia will not join Nissan and Mitsubishi in lobbying for changes to unique design rules required for certification of local cars on sales.

Both Nissan and Mitsubishi have voiced concerns over differing standards when compared to larger markets like Europe, and asked for changes that would bring Australia in line.

Speaking to Drive, Mazda Australia marketing boss Alastair Doak said the Australia Design Rules (ADR) procedure does not need to change in line with other markets.

“We’re comfortable with what it is,” he said.

“These days you can homologate a car under pure ADR, you can homologate that under pure EU regulations, and then there’s some variance for ADR within that – top tethers and a few other bits and pieces.

“To us, it’s not a huge burden to do that.

“I guess we’ve been in this market for decades, and it’s baked into the process.

“We have no major issue with it.”

By contrast, Nissan has called out the Australian Government for its lengthy certification process, which has held back the Ariya electric SUV that went on sale in overseas markets in late 2021 and is still yet to arrive in local showrooms.

Nissan is committed to bringing the Tesla Model Y rival to Australia though, but Nissan Senior Vice-President and Chief Planning Officer for the AMIEO (African, Middle East, India, Europe, and Oceania) region, Francois Bailly, told local journalists the process takes around 45 weeks.

“What I would challenge is … could the Government help us compress this homologation period?,” he said earlier this year.

“If a car is recognised in, let’s say Europe – which is a safe market, or US, can we reduce that [time to market]?

“It’s really challenging, the road to get there is where we would like some help.”

It is understood the Nissan Ariya has not been approved for sale in Australia due to the lack of a top tether anchorage point for the middle seat in the second row.

Tesla also ran afoul of this issue when it launched its facelifted Model 3 earlier this year, wherein it had to be recalled to amend the problem.

Honda, meanwhile, simply chose not to remedy the concern, and sells its HR-V SUV as a four-seater in Australia, while it is classed as a five-seater overseas.

Mitsubishi Australia also called for unified design rules with Europe recently, stating:

“Equivalent standards in other advanced markets such as Japan, the EU, UK and other jurisdictions should also be accepted,” the brand said in a statement.

“This would further accelerate new vehicle adoption in this country, with no impact on safety.”

Such amendments suggested by Mitsubishi include changing rules for the second-row centre seat top tether, as well as changing requirements for Australia Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs), front-crash occupant protection testing, and fuel consumption labelling.

However, for Mazda Australia, it broadly adopts vehicles available in overseas markets, except for a few models from China, and the turbocharged Mazda3 and CX-30, and CX-50 available in North America in left-hand-drive only.

Mazda Australia is also the only market in the world to take all four vehicles built on the new Large Architecture platform that encompasses CX-60, CX-90, CX-70, and CX-80 – the latter two launching later this year.

When asked if Mazda Australia would join the chorus petitioning for ADRs to fall more in line with Europe, Mr Doak said the brand has no problem with the current certification process.

“Well, they are pretty close to Europe already,” he said.

“We’re happy to play within the rules that we have.”