James Goodwin

THE incorporation of more elements in the crash-testing protocol means testers like ANCAP will have to write off more vehicles – five, not four – from 2018 onwards when standards are harmonised between Australasia and Europe.

However, while harmonisation means the two testing organisations will be able to use each other’s crash-test ratings, ANCAP was likely to conduct as many tests in future as it does now, ANCAP chief executive James Goodwin said.

There will be more elements in a safety rating assessment when the standards are harmonised between Australasia and Europe, he told a professional development forum run by the Australasian Fleet Managers Association.

There would be an assessment of adult occupant (not driver) protection and also child occupant protection in the revised test, he said.

As well as the 40 per cent offset frontal crash, there will, from 2018, be a full-frontal test, which will lift the number of vehicles destroyed in testing from four to five.

In addition, the side impact test will be changed, as will the pole test. From 2018, the pole impact will be at a 50-degree angle, not 90 degrees, to better simulate a vehicle sliding off the road and hitting a tree.

“We want to make sure our lab tests as much as possible replicate the crashes on Australasian roads,” Mr Goodwin said.

Mr Godwin said it currently costs around $200,000 to run the tests that produce a crash rating, and that does not include the cost of the four cars that are currently destroyed to achieve an ANCAP crash rating.

In the early days of testing, the car-makers did not want to help in any way, but Mr Goodwin said that nowadays the manufacturers are more accommodating.

Many of the manufacturers now provide the cars for testing, which eases the burden on the not-for-profit ANCAP organisation.

By Ian Porter