Trucks
Trucks
In 2024, Euro NCAP is expanding its independent safety assessments to cover heavy-duty trucks. This has huge potential for increasing safety awareness and lifting standards across the industry.
The European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) was first established in 1996 and has quickly become the industry standard for assessing the safety of passenger cars. It is supported by multiple European governments, including the EU.
In March 2024, Euro NCAP announced it would expand its safety assessments to cover heavy-duty trucks as well, with the first round of test results expected by November 2024.
“Safety is one of our core values and given the impact Euro NCAP has had on passenger cars, we welcome this initiative, and we’re excited to see what it will mean for truck safety,” says Anna Wrige Berling, Traffic & Product Safety Director, Volvo Trucks.
Initially, Euro NCAP will focus on three main areas:
In 2027, more systems will be added to the three areas and by 2030, crash protection will be added as well. Much like its passenger car ratings, Euro NCAP will assess the various safety systems and solutions in each of these areas and how they work in different accident scenarios. Each system will be given a score, which will be aggregated for each area. These scores will then be used to calculate a star rating for the whole vehicle.
“One of Euro NCAP’s main strengths is their ability to evaluate safety systems beyond the basic legal demands,” says Anna Wrige Berling, Traffic & Product Safety Director, Volvo Trucks. “Rather than just giving a pass-or-fail, they incorporate a lot of different scenarios into their evaluations, to create a more comprehensive picture of how effective they are.”
Given the impact Euro NCAP has had on passenger cars, we welcome this initiative, and we’re excited by what it will mean for truck safety.”
What are the challenges when measuring truck safety?
Euro NCAP is the industry’s first common platform for evaluating and comparing trucks’ safety standards, and their ratings have great potential. However, it should be noted that this is not a straightforward task.
“For passenger cars, Euro NCAP has one rating for each model, which works well because there is not much difference within each model class,” says Anna. “However, for trucks it’s more complex. Each truck model has thousands of different specifications and is used in a variety of different applications. Should it still be the same rating for the whole model class?”
Exactly how this will be solved is not yet known, but as a first step to address the fact that safety needs can vary between different driving situations, a specific truck can be awarded a “city safe label”. This would be in addition to the overall star rating, and only applicable if the truck meets certain criteria for driving in city traffic.
While Euro NCAP includes a wide range of scenarios, it can be difficult to measure the impact on the driver and how a system functions in the real world.
“If an active safety system frequently intervenes when it’s not needed it can cause annoyance and reduce trust in the system. Maybe even prompt drivers to switch it off and leave them with no safety system at all,” explains Anna.
“For this reason, minimizing false interventions is a vital part of developing our active safety systems. However, since Euro NCAP focuses mainly on the positive interventions, it will still be up to us as manufacturers to find the right balance.”
Furthermore, not all safety systems are included in the Euro NCAP rating. Examples of areas that are not included are stability and driver training - both very important for truck safety.
“Euro NCAP will provide an important assessment of the safety performance of trucks, but it will not take away the need for us as manufacturers to continue to have our own safety ambitions and a holistic approach to safety,” says Anna.
For passenger cars, Euro NCAP’s ratings are now established as an industry standard in many countries. Some companies and institutions even insist on five-star ratings in vehicle procurements, and Anna believes that the ratings have made a significant contribution to safer passenger cars.
“Euro NCAP has really raised safety standards in passenger cars, by encouraging the introduction of new safety systems before they became legal requirements. Take automatic emergency brakes as an example. They only become legally mandatory for passenger cars in 2024 – and yet nearly all passenger cars have already had them for years. That’s thanks partly to Euro NCAP.”
Will Euro NCAP have the same impact on trucks? In contrast to passenger cars, many of the active safety systems being evaluated are already legal requirements so the impact is unlikely to be the same. Yet Anna still believes it will have a positive effect across the industry. It is likely to push truck manufacturers to refine and improve their safety systems, and it will encourage customers to invest in safety systems.
“Any initiative that encourages more awareness and discussion about road safety and makes it easier for customers to purchase safer trucks, should be welcomed,” says Anna. “We’re looking forward to working closely with Euro NCAP to help refine and improve the safety of our vehicles even further.”
