If you want to know how a car’s safety performance in the end, the most simple and brutal way is to “crash”, through the collision assessment of the car in a variety of extreme environments, both active and passive safety performance, so as to judge the quality of the car’s advantages and disadvantages. But the car’s safety performance can not only be gory on the market for the reverse feedback of the collision accident cases, more should be the collision experiment for the positive detection, so the car crash test came into being. Car crash test, on the one hand, can provide a safety reference for car enterprises, prompting car enterprises to make positive improvements in safety; on the other hand is the involvement of the state, the constraints of laws and regulations can continue to regulate the industry safety standards, so as to maximize the protection of consumers’ lives and safety!
First, the development of automotive crash test
In 1938, engineers from Audi’s predecessor, the Auto Union, pushed a DKW F7 down a hillside to test the TA’s crashworthiness, an attempt that is considered the seminal work in automotive safety crash testing.
In 1978, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) created the first New Car Assessment Program (NCAP).
In 1992, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) introduced crash testing and the concept of ratings. The results of the crash test will be divided into: excellent, acceptable, general, very poor four levels.
At the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, countries gradually began to regulate their own crash test system, have established a new car evaluation procedures. 1996, the European Union established the far-reaching impact of the E-NCAP.
China in 2006 and 2015, successive years established a crash test organization based on the C-NCAP and C-IASI system, in 2018, the first batch of C-IASI crash test results were announced.
II. Major Crash Testing Organizations
Each country or region’s safety crash test is based on local conditions. On the one hand, it depends on the local economic development and the overall safety technology of the car company to determine the stringency of the testing standards; on the other hand, the traffic environment also differs from place to place, and the local testing organization will also develop some testing programs with local characteristics according to their respective realities.
Among many crash test agencies, foreign countries have to mention the European E-NCAP and the American IIHS test, the domestic is mainly C-NCAP and in recent years, the development of C-IASI.
2.1、European E-NCAP
E-NCAP (Europe-New Car Assessment Program), founded in 1997, was initiated by the governments of five European countries and is a professional safety assessment organization that combines European Union organizations, professional academics and high-tech engineers.
E-NCAP adopts a double rating of vehicles in terms of crash, namely “Minimum Safety Level” and “Additional Safety Package”, which is conducive to comparability and objectivity through the same evaluation criteria. Before the test, E-NCAP agency personnel will crash the best-selling models and purchase the vehicles from dealers anonymously to avoid cheating. For the crash program, E-NCAP focuses on four dimensions: adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, vulnerable road users and additional safety packages, with five stars as the highest rating.
As E-NCAP is an independent European automotive industry organization with members from different European countries, it is not easy to be influenced by car companies in terms of crash results, and the test results are recognized by consumers. At the same time, it also provides more cross-assessment parameters for car companies to help them improve their own products.
2.2. IIHS
The IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) crash test is known for its rigor, and the IIHS differs from NCAP in its scoring system in that it is mainly judged by grades, including G (excellent), A (good), M (passing), and P (poor). Crash items include 25% small overlap crash, 40% overlap crash, side impact, roof strength test, neck seat test and so on. Among them, the most car companies feel the pressure is the 25% small overlap collision, the vehicle to 64km / h into the barrier, when the vehicle will be a huge pressure impact, the whole body is easy to deform, the general family car is difficult to meet the standards.
The harshness of the IIHS also attracted many dissatisfaction and complaints from manufacturers. In the U.S. auto market, in addition to U.S. cars, Japanese and German cars are also a part of the market that cannot be ignored, and their crash standards are the same. As you can see, many of the “global cars” that have gone through the generations will be sent to the IIHS for testing, which has a strong authority.
2.3、China C-NCAP
C-NCAP (China-New Car Assessment Program), founded in 2006, is an enterprise organization with the China National Automotive Technology Research Center Co. The main test items of C-NCAP are occupant protection, pedestrian protection and active safety, which include sub-tests such as 40%/100% frontal crash at 50km/h, side impact, whiplash test, pedestrian head shape and leg shape test, etc. Each vehicle is given a five-star rating according to the five-star rating system. Each test vehicle is given a score based on a five-star rating system, with the higher the score, the safer it is.
In 2018, the C-NCAP test standard has been upgraded with a significant increase in stringency and is now basically on par with the E-NCAP test standard, while a more complete system has been introduced for evaluating active safety tests such as AEB active braking. However, C-NCAP still does not have the 25% small overlap configuration and side pillar collision, and also lacks the anti-rollover and roof strength tests.
C-NCAP, as the largest crash assessment organization in China, has a high level of authority. However, in recent years, C-NCAP has been questioned and even ridiculed as a “five-star wholesale department”. C-NCAP’s main business is to assist the government in managing automotive-related work, and it has close contacts with major car companies. 2019 C-NCAP Passat test results released, causing a huge stir, and had a five-star rating in the C-NCAP The Passat, with its abysmal performance in the C-NCAP 25% test, has not only affected the public, but also raised new questions about C-NCAP.
2.4. China C-IASI
In 2015, under the guidance of China Insurance Association, China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd. and China Institute of Insurance Research Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. formulated the C-IASI (China Insurance Automotive Safety Index) evaluation system on the basis of international mature experience (IIHS) and the current state of China’s auto insurance and vehicle safety technology.
C-IASI is tested and evaluated in four aspects: crashworthiness and maintenance economy index, interior occupant safety index, exterior pedestrian safety index, and auxiliary vehicle safety index. The in-vehicle occupant safety index system is designed with reference to the U.S. IIHS high-speed test standard, and is conducted under typical working conditions such as frontal 25% offset crash, side impact, roof strength, and seat/headrestraint test. The final evaluation results are regularly released in the form of intuitive grades: excellent (G), good (A), fair (M), and poor (P).
Compared with C-NCAP, the biggest advantage of C-IASI is that its testing program is in line with the international advanced level, C-IASI is currently the only organization in the world that refers to the IIHS testing standards, first of all, C-IASI introduced a 25% overlap of small-area configuration and roof strength test, which improved the standard of crash testing; secondly, C-IASI only purchases the lowest-matched models for crash testing. Lastly, C-IASI is subordinate to insurance companies, and the insurance industry is a promoter of auto safety itself, so it has very little connection with auto companies.
It can be said that the emergence of C-IASI has broken the harmonious situation in China’s auto market and objectively presented the safety performance of different models to the general public, providing data reference for insurance companies and helping them to make better reference to the safety of cars when setting premiums for different models. At the same time, such data for consumers, also has reference value.
Third, the car crash test thinking?
To determine whether a region’s automotive products are safe or not, it is not the consciousness and “conscience” of car companies, but rather regulatory laws and regulations that should be relied upon. As the IIHS in the United States after the introduction of a small range of 25% crash test, a number of car companies in order to test, strengthen the driver’s side of the crash intensity, but did not improve the passenger side, until the IIHS raid on the passenger side.
The role of the car crash test for the promotion of car safety is obvious, as an ordinary consumer, it is recommended that you buy vehicles will be crash test information as an important consideration.
Recent Comments