ANCAP crash-testing body turns 30, renews ties with its European counterpart

The Australasian New-Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) – the leading organisation for independent safety testing of new cars in Australia and New Zealand – has marked its 30th anniversary.

And it has renewed its ties with the European New-Car Assessment Programme (NCAP), which supplies the majority of ANCAP safety results to augment crash testing conducted in Australia for vehicles not sold in Europe.

Of the 27 ANCAP safety ratings published so far this year, 25 are derived from Euro NCAP testing – typically for vehicles which go on sale in Europe before arriving in Australia.

ANCAP and Euro NCAP have all but aligned their testing protocols since 2018 – with a few small differences in the criteria, including for child-seat anchor points, to account for unique government regulations in Australia.

The heads of the two organisations – Euro NCAP President, Niels Ebbe Jacobsen and ANCAP Chair, Andy Cornish – signed a 'memorandum of understanding' (MOU) document to “pave the way for closer collaboration” between the two entities “in the future.”

The first time both parties signed an MOU was in 1999, with the aim of aligning their testing protocols and results. 

"Euro NCAP and ANCAP first entered an MOU with Euro NCAP back in 1999, and since then, ANCAP's ability to influence vehicle safety specification and encourage vehicle manufacturers to improve the level of passive and active safety provided in new cars sold in Australia and New Zealand has been assisted significantly," ANCAP Chair, Andy Cornish, said in a media statement.

When ANCAP was established in 1993, vehicles underwent just one frontal crash test at 56km/h.

Today ANCAP and Euro NCAP test vehicles are subject to seven crash tests, which are designed to mimic a range of driving scenarios. 

These are combined with crash-avoidance tests which verify the performance of a vehicle’s advanced safety features in daytime and night-time conditions.