Australasian New Car Assessment Program awarded 2014 Global NCAP Consumer Champion

His Majesty Prince Michael of Kent, cousin of Queen Elizabeth, presented the Global NCAP Award at the Global NCAP Forum in Melbourne on 6th May, 2014. At the Awards presentation, Mr David Ward, Secretary-General of the Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP), said, that not only has ANCAP assisted in supporting the successful launch of the newest test program, ASEAN NCAP, but it has also “played a pioneering role in fleet safety, encouraging the Australian Government and a growing number of organisations to adopt a 5 star vehicle fleet policy.
 
Indeed, BHP Billiton was also recognised for its adoption of a minimum 5 star rating for all of its light vehicle purchases worldwide.
 
However, the big challenge for meeting the goals of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety for vehicle safety is getting minimum vehicle safety standards and regulations in place universally. Mr Ward pointed out that while currently 65 million vehicles are sold in the world annually, “20 million of these vehicles fail to meet the United Nations crash standards, have no airbags, no anti-lock brakes, and no electronic stability control.”
 
Moreover, there is a sinister trend emerging about how major manufacturers are selling the same models in different regions with vastly different safety ratings. For example, Alejandro Furas of Latin NCAP showed a stunned audience how Renault is selling its Clio in Europe, with front, back and side airbags, plus ABS and achieving a 5 star rating by EuroNCAP, and at the same time selling a similar model Clio in Latin America without any of these safety features, with a zero star rating by LatinNCAP – AND charging more for it!
 
Nissan is similarly selling inferior and unsafe models in Latin America, while selling for similar prices 5 star cars in Europe.  Mr Furas made the point that in emerging markets such as Latin America and Asia, car manufacturers including the well-known international companies are leaving out critical safety features, such as airbags.  In India, Hyundai, Suzuki, Volkswagon and Ford all sell cars without airbags achieving few or no stars when crash tested.
 
At the other end of the spectrum, Dr Anders Lie, spoke of collaborations in Europe with the automobile manufacturers to innovate new safety technologies for the protection of vehicle occupants and other, more vulnerable road users.  Increasingly, the focus is on crash avoidance technologies, including lane support systems, intelligent speed adaptation, driver monitoring, and automated driving systems.