2027 Toyota RAV4 Safety Upgrade Arrives to Secure Crucial Five-Star ANCAP Rating

Toyota Australia is rolling out a critical safety and technology upgrade for the 2027 RAV4 mid-size SUV starting in late October, aimed at securing a five-star safety rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP). The updates will be applied across the entire hybrid and plug-in hybrid range with no resulting increases to the vehicle's pricing structure.

The new-generation RAV4 arrived in Australia in March 2026 following delays related to quality control, pushing its launch back from its original late-2025 target. This delay meant the SUV missed the window to be tested under the less stringent 2025 safety standards it was engineered for, forcing it to comply with ANCAP's tougher 2026 testing protocols. Consequently, early shipments of the new RAV4 have arrived in Australia without an official safety rating.  

The Fleet Sales Bottleneck

The RAV4's currently unrated status has created a significant hurdle for Toyota in the fleet sector. In 2025, government, business, and rental fleet buyers accounted for 39.5 per cent of all RAV4 sales. Many of these organizations enforce strict workplace health and safety policies that explicitly prohibit the purchase of vehicles lacking a five-star ANCAP rating.

Toyota Australia Vice President of Sales, John Pappas, confirmed the brand has had to carefully manage expectations with its fleet clientele due to these strict safety policies.

“We’ve had inquiries from fleet customers regarding the RAV4 because the safety level on that vehicle’s very safe – from a safety point of view, the safest RAV4 we’ve ever had in the market – so now to be able to get that five-star from a policy point of view, if you’re a fleet customer, is good news,” Pappas stated. He anticipates a sales boost once the rating is achieved, allowing the brand to satisfy pent-up fleet demand over a full year of run rate in 2027.

Despite lacking a rating, the RAV4 remains highly popular among private buyers, currently ranking as Australia’s fourth most popular new vehicle year-to-date and topping the national monthly sales charts in April, July, and August 2026. Key segment rivals, including the new Mazda CX-5, Hyundai Tucson, and Mitsubishi Outlander, all hold current five-star ANCAP ratings.

Unspecified Safety Enhancements

Despite confirming that the first updated vehicles will arrive in showrooms this month, Toyota remains highly secretive regarding the specific technical changes made to the vehicle.

The automaker has only disclosed that it has applied "incremental improvements to RAV4 active and passive safety features". This covers active crash-avoidance technology (such as autonomous emergency braking systems) and passive occupant protection (such as airbags, seatbelts, and crumple zones). A Toyota spokesperson previously stated that the upgrade involves "no new features, no structural changes," but rather an enhancement of existing systems to satisfy the newer protocols.

ANCAP CEO Carla Hoorweg confirmed Toyota will subject the updated RAV4 to independent crash testing via the Euro NCAP program later this year. ANCAP will then apply those results to Australian-delivered vehicles.

"Our advice to fleets and mum-and-dad consumers is, if a vehicle is unrated to wait for a rating," Hoorweg stated, noting that any RAV4 models imported prior to the arrival of the updated stock will remain officially unrated.

Separately from the safety enhancements, Toyota recently announced minor lineup adjustments for the 2027 RAV4, introducing an updated drive mode system for all-wheel-drive examples and adding a new GXL plug-in hybrid grade.

2026/2027 Toyota RAV4 Australian Pricing

Pricing for the Toyota RAV4 remains unchanged following the introduction of the safety upgrades. All listed prices exclude statutory on-road costs and dealer delivery fees