Just days after announcing a new entry-level grade of its small SUV lacking a ubiquitous safety feature, GAC has done a U-turn.

On Tuesday, August 18, it announced the Emzoom would gain a new entry-level Premium grade, priced $4000 below the existing Luxury at $22,990 drive-away. To get to that price point, however, GAC removed various features including seatbelt pretensioners.

This drew the ire of independent safety authority ANCAP, which called the move a "retrograde step".

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Now, the Chinese brand is reversing course.

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"GAC Australia acknowledges the concerns raised by customers and industry stakeholders following the recent announcement that seatbelt pretensioners and rear seatbelt reminder systems are not included in the Emzoom Premium variant," the company said in a release.

"It has since been confirmed that these features are not standard equipment on the Emzoom Premium grade in other global markets, contributing to their exclusion from the Australian specification.

"GAC International has now confirmed that both safety features will be reinstated for vehicles produced for the Australian market from Model Year 2027 production, with arrivals expected from November.

"Providing vehicle specifications that meet, and where possible exceed, the expectations of Australian customers and industry experts remains a priority for GAC. We will continue to review and enhance our product offering to ensure our vehicles align with market expectations and customer needs."

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There will still be Emzoom Premiums coming into the country without the pretensioners, as GAC confirmed this week the new base grade would start arriving in dealerships from early September.

GAC had confirmed that in addition to deleting niceties like a panoramic sunroof to make the Premium the equal-cheapest SUV in Australia, it would also remove seatbelt pretensioners – which help keep the belts tight during a crash.

However, it confirmed seatbelts both front and rear would retain force-limiters.

Pretensioners weren't the only safety features removed from the Emzoom for the new Premium grade, with rear seatbelt reminders and front parking sensors also removed.

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The surround-view camera has also been replaced with a simple reversing camera, three of the six rear parking sensors have been deleted, and the rear wiper has been removed.

"Seatbelt pretensioners are not new or emerging technology. They have been commonplace in new vehicles since the mid-1990s," said ANCAP chief executive Carla Hoorweg in a statement supplied on Thursday.

“Recent examples have shown the consequences of omitting pretensioners and load limiters as it means the occupants travel further forward before the belt locks, exposing the chest and legs to significantly higher crash forces."

The safety authority hasn’t confirmed whether it'll assess the Emzoom, saying only that “as with all new vehicle models sold into Australia, the GAC Emzoom is a potential candidate for ANCAP testing”.

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