Euro NCAP
Euro NCAP ( English European New Car Assessment Program , European New Car Assessment Program ' ) is a company of European transport ministries, automobile associations and insurance organizations based in Brussels . The organization carries out crash tests with new types of automobiles and then assesses their safety using the available safety systems. The tests are not required by law, but merely serve to inform consumers.
Only ratings from the same year are comparable. Since February 2009, the overall safety of the vehicle has been awarded up to five stars; Before that, every vehicle received up to five stars in several categories.
Euro NCAP is a member of Global NCAP , a worldwide association for vehicle safety.
history
Euro NCAP was founded in late 1996 for the UK Department for Transport by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). In the years that followed, other European institutions joined the program. The International Consumer Research & Testing (ICRT), as an umbrella organization for the administration of jointly conducted comparative product tests, market and product research, is a Euro-NCAP member, as is the automobile clubs ADAC and ACI.
The first reviews were published in early 1997. At that time, the Volvo S40 received the highest rating with 4 stars, while most other vehicles such as the Ford Fiesta received 3 stars or the Mercedes-Benz C-Class received 2 stars. Since then, there has been a significant improvement in the level of security. The Renault Laguna , for example, only achieved 2 stars in 1997, the successor model achieved 5 stars at the same time as the Saab 9-5 in 2001 . Meanwhile, 5 stars are standard for occupant protection.
More recent knowledge about accidents and their causes are continuously incorporated into new requirements of the test conditions. Over time, the test program was supplemented by additional tests and the evaluation criteria tightened.
While only the results of the crash tests were evaluated in the first few years, the evaluation of the active safety systems is increasingly included in the overall evaluation.
rating
The vehicles tested only have the safety equipment with which they are equipped as standard in all countries of the European Union . Safety systems such as seat belt tensioners and side airbags, which are only available for an extra charge in individual countries or only in certain models, may therefore be missing . A double assessment has also been possible since 2016. At the manufacturer's request, a second assessment can be made here using the optionally available security packages.
Protection of adult occupants
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The test section consists of four individual crash tests. In an offset frontal crash, the vehicle hits an aluminum barrier at a speed of 64 km / h and an overlap of 40%. The test simulates a collision between two identical vehicles, each traveling at 50 km / h. The vehicle is occupied by HIII 50% dummies on the front seats . These are 1.75 m tall and weigh 78 kg. The height adjustment of the driver and passenger seat are in the lowest position. The sun visors are folded. The assessment of security is mainly based on the measured values of the dummies. There are also other criteria for assessment. So there are z. B. Deduction of points if there are hard structures where the inmates hit their knees and shins.
In a full-width frontal crash, the vehicle hits a rigid barrier at a speed of 50 km / h and an overlap of 100%. An HIII 5% dummy sits on the driver's seat and one in the back. This has a size of 1.52 m and a weight of 50 kg. The test places high demands on the restraint systems. Strict limits apply to the deceleration forces that act on the chest and cause severe chest deformation. This is intended to encourage vehicle manufacturers to install adaptive restraint systems in order to pass the test. Since the new test existed, the manufacturers have mostly equipped their rear seats with seat belt tensioners and belt force limiters.
The vehicle side impact, the impact of another vehicle from the side, is simulated by means of a deformable barrier that is driven against the driver's door at 50 km / h. The barrier has a weight of 1300 kg. Up to and including 2014, it weighed 950 kg.
The side impact of the pole, the impact on a tree or mast with the side of the vehicle, is simulated by hurling the vehicle against a stable pole at 32 km / h. Up to and including 2014, the test speed was 29 km / h.
Protection of children
In the event of an offset frontal crash and a side impact, there are two child dummies on the rear seats that simulated an 18-month-old and a three-year-old child up to and including 2015. P-dummies were used from 2003 to 2012 and Q-dummies from 2012 to 2015. Since 2016, there have been two larger child dummies (Q-dummies), which are supposed to simulate a 6-year-old and a 10-year-old child, in the back seats. Child seats offered or recommended by the vehicle manufacturer are used. This test has been around since 2003; the assessment is also based on points.
Pedestrian protection
This evaluates the risk of injury to pedestrians at the front.
Stricter regulations, which have gradually been in place since 2005 and since 2010 for new models, are intended to provide better protection for pedestrians in the event of an accident. After a few years of development, active systems are also ready for series production. These are z. B. bonnets that automatically raise a few centimeters in an accident and thus offer more deformation space. Such a system is used, for example, in the Mercedes E-Class (W213) or in the Volvo S90 (2016) .
Another technology that is still not very widespread is airbags for the front area, which are triggered when a pedestrian hits a pedestrian and open outwards, the first to be standard in the Volvo V40 (2012) .
Since 2016 there has also been a test to evaluate the emergency brake assistant for pedestrian detection.
Supportive security systems
The supporting security systems have been greatly expanded in recent years. At the moment, the presence of a speed limitation system ( Speed Assistance ), a warning when the seat belt is not worn ( Seat Belt Reminder ) and a lane departure warning ( Lane Support ) are included in the scoring. There are also tests for an automatic emergency braking function ( AEB Interurban ). Since 2016, the presence of an electronic vehicle dynamics control ( ESC ) has no longer been included in the assessment, as ESP is now mandatory within the EU.
meaning
| Stars | Explanation |
|---|---|
|
Low impact protection |
|
Nominal impact protection but no accident avoidance technology |
|
Average to good occupant protection but no accident prevention technology |
|
Good overall marks for impact protection; additional accident prevention technology may be available |
|
Good overall marks for impact protection, comprehensive equipment with practical accident avoidance technology |
Members
Criticism of test procedures and relevance
The various development goals are defined during vehicle design and development. Fulfilling the criteria for the ratings is one of the development goals. The result is a precise development based on the requirements of the tests. All statements about safety therefore only apply within the framework of these test conditions. A slight deviation from the test conditions can lead to completely different results.
In 2012, a crash test carried out by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) showed that reducing the coverage from 40% to 25% leads to significantly more severe injuries. Only vehicles that had previously received the top rating in a crash test comparable to EuroNCAP were tested. In the new crash test with an overlap of only 25% ("small overlap"), only 2 of the 11 vehicles tested received a good or acceptable rating. Anyone else would have had severe injuries, especially in the leg area.
When EuroNCAP carried out the first crash tests in 1997, the selected crash test configuration was considered innovative. A deformable barrier was used, which was a good representation of an opponent in the accident at the time. The deformable barrier was chosen, among other things, to check the deployment characteristics of the airbags. In the early years there were repeated very late airbag deployments, such as B. the BMW E36 . Today, however, the vehicle fronts are much more inhomogeneous and the side members are much stiffer, so that the chosen barrier is less and less consistent with the actual accident. The ADAC has carried out some so-called vehicle / vehicle crash tests in recent years. It was shown that at the same speed, the risk of injury increases significantly compared to the EuroNCAP crash test.
All EuroNCAP crash tests are carried out with dummies that are no more than 1.75 m tall. The tests therefore do not provide any information about the risk of injury for taller or shorter people.
As a rule, Euro NCAP tests either only the left-hand drive or only the right-hand drive variant, although these do not necessarily behave in the same way in a crash.
It should be noted that the ratings are based on the respective underlying vehicle class because the crash test simulates a collision with a vehicle of similar size. As a rule, larger vehicles perform better than small ones in real accidents. According to statistical research, the risk of dying in a car accident is higher for occupants of a lighter vehicle. An exception are off-road vehicles , which overturn more frequently due to their high center of gravity and thus have a similarly high death rate as small cars.
Comparable programs
- ANCAP (Australia)
- ASEAN NCAP (Southeast Asia)
- C-NCAP (China)
- JNCAP (Japan)
- IIHS -HLDI ( USA )
- KNCAP ( South Korea )
- Latin NCAP ( South America )
- US NCAP (USA)
Individual evidence
- ^ List of Euro NCAP Members and Test Facilities . Euro NCAP. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
- ↑ Less top marks in the euro crash test . The time . February 4, 2011. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
- ↑ a b History ( English ) Euro NCAP. Archived from the original on November 4, 2007. Retrieved November 9, 2009.
- ↑ GLOBAL NCAP website
- ^ Car Search Results . Euro NCAP. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
- ^ Frontal impact . Euro NCAP. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
- ↑ http://www.euroncap.com/files/Euro-NCAP-Frontal-Protocol-Version-6.0---0-7981ae7b-44f3-4c12-adea-6a0a736ec180.pdf
- ^ Car to Car Side Impact . Euro NCAP. Retrieved November 9, 2009.
- ↑ http://www-esv.nhtsa.dot.gov/Proceedings/23/files/23ESV-000275.PDF
- ↑ http://www.euroncap.com/files/Euro-NCAP-Side-Protocol-Version-6.0---0-9f4794c4-ae7f-47bd-9f00-46ff0da741b8.pdf
- ↑ Pole Side Impact . Euro NCAP. Retrieved November 9, 2009.
- ↑ Pedestrian AEB (automatic emergency brake). Retrieved April 9, 2019 .
- ↑ How to understand the stars. In: Euroncap.com. Retrieved July 9, 2017 .
- ↑ http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr081412.html
- ↑ http://de.euroncap.com/de/tests/bmw_3_series_1997/15.aspx
- ↑ http://www.adac.de/_mmm/pdf/26683_142434.pdf ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ^ C. Adrian Hobbs; Paul J. McDonough: Development of the European New Car Assessment Program. (PDF, 2.4 MB) Transport Research Laboratory, p. 2440 , accessed on July 20, 2017 .
- ↑ Fatality risk isn't the same in all vehicles, driver death rates show ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ ANCAP website
- ^ ASEAN NCAP website
- ^ Website C-NCAP
- ^ JNCAP website
- ↑ site IIHS HLDI
- ↑ KNCAP website
- ↑ LATIN NCAP website
- ^ Website NHTSA
