New Car Assessment Program

A New Car Assessment Program (or Programme) is a government car safety program tasked with evaluating new automobile designs for performance against various safety threats.

Consumer information label for a vehicle with at least one NCAP star rating

History

The first NCAP was created in 1979, by the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This program was established in response to Title II of the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act of 1972, to encourage manufacturers to build safer vehicles and consumers to buy them. Over time, the agency improved the program by adding rating programs, facilitating access to test results, and revising the format of the information to make it easier for consumers to understand.[1] NHTSA asserts the program has influenced manufacturers to build vehicles that consistently achieve high ratings.[1]

The first standardized, 35 mph front crash test was May 21, 1979, and the first results were released October 15 that year. The agency established a frontal impact test protocol based on Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 (“Occupant Crash Protection”), except that the frontal 4 NCAP test is conducted at 56 km/h (35 mph), rather than 48 km/h (30 mph) as required by FMVSS No. 208.

The European program, Euro NCAP, was founded in 1997 by the Transport Research Laboratory for the UK Department for Transport and backed by several European governments, as well as by the European Union.[2] Based in Brussels, Belgium, the European program was modeled on the American program.[1] Other areas with similar programmes include Australia and New Zealand with ANCAP,[3] Latin America with Latin NCAP and China with C-NCAP.[4] The Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Program is being planned for India.

In the 2000s, the American agency sought to improve the dissemination of NCAP ratings and as a result of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA–LU). It did so by issuing a Final Rule requiring manufacturers to place NCAP star ratings on the Monroney sticker (automobile price sticker). The rule has a September 1, 2007 compliance date.[5]

Organizations

Different NCAPs are:

NameAbbreviationFoundedLocation
United States New Car Assessment ProgramUS NCAP (U.S. NCAP)1978Washington, DC, USA
Insurance Institute for Highway SafetyIIHS1959, Ratings from 1995Arlington, VA, USA
Australasian New Car Assessment ProgramANCAP1993Canberra, Australia
Japan New Car Assessment ProgrammeJNCAP1995Tokyo, Japan
European New Car Assessment ProgrammeEuro NCAP1996Brussels, Belgium
Korean New Car Assessment ProgrammeKNCAP1999Seoul, South Korea
China – New Car Assessment ProgrammeC-NCAP2006Tianjin, China
Latin New Car Assessment ProgrammeLatin NCAP2010Montevideo, Uruguay
New Car Assessment Program for Southeast AsiaASEAN NCAP2011Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
Global New Car Assessment ProgrammeGlobal NCAP2011London, Great Britain
Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment ProgramBNVSAP2017tbd
Green NCAP (operated by Euro NCAP for emissions)Green NCAP2019Brussels, Belgium

References

  1. "The New Car Assessment Program Suggested Approaches for Future Program Enhancements" (PDF). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. January 2007. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  2. Pernille Larsen (2011-05-25). "FIA Region I . Euro NCAP's standard set for upcoming electric and range-extender cars". Fiabrussels.com. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  3. "ANCAP and EuroNCAP now aligned…". Practical Motoring. 2018-01-01. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  4. "中国新车评价规程(C-NCAP)官方网站" [China's new car evaluation procedures (C-NCAP) official website] (in Chinese). China: C-NCAP. Archived from the original on 2017-02-15. Retrieved 2017-05-06.
  5. U.S. NCAP enhancements for 2007 Archived October 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
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