Hyundai Motor Co. said Thursday that its new Genesis premium sedan received the highest ever safety test score in Australia and New Zealand, sidestepping well-established rivals from Japan and Germany.

South Korea’s largest carmaker said the Genesis, first unveiled in its home market in late 2013, got the top five stars in the Australasian New Car Assessment Program safety rating scheme with an overall score of 36.88 out of 37.

The score is the highest tallied in the ANCAP’s 21-year history and is better than numbers received by the current leaders the Toyota Aurion and BMW 5 Series, which got 36.59 and 36.53, respectively. Before the Genesis, the title holder was the Mercedes-Benz B-Class in 2012 with 36.78 points.

The highly regarded assessment program is operated by governments and motoring organizations of Australia and New Zealand to give consumers coherent results on the protection given by vehicles in front and side impact collisions.

The test involves a frontal offset test, side impact test, pole test and whiplash protection tests. Frontal offset tests ram the car at a fixed barrier at 64 kilometers per hour, while side and pole tests involve collisions at 50 kph and 29 kph. (Yonhap)