Car size ‘a growing concern’, says Euro NCAP

Following its latest round of tests of 16 cars, Euro NCAP says it has observed a clear trend of cars in the test programme becoming heavier, with the average weight of cars sold in Europe increasing by 100kg over the past 10 years.

While the 16 cars tested in this batch performed well at protecting those onboard, the results showed that some are potentially significantly more harmful to occupants of other cars in the event of a frontal collision.

In 2020, Euro NCAP updated its frontal offset test, in which it evaluates how models perform when crashing head-on into another vehicle. In this unique test, called the Mobile Progressive Deformable Barrier (MPDB), a moving barrier is used to simulate a head-on collision with a typical mid-sized (1,400 kg) family car.

The vehicle under test and the MPDB are both driven at 50 km/h and positioned with a 50 per cent overlap. The introduction of the MPDB has allowed Euro NCAP to examine not only the vehicle’s occupant protection but also its aggressiveness towards other cars on the road.

The level of deceleration of the MPDB in the impact and the footprint of the test vehicle to the deformable barrier simulate how efficiently the vehicle can interact with another vehicle in a head-on collision.

A vehicle that leads to extremely high trolley decelerations, or which causes very severe localised deformation, is said to exhibit poor ‘compatibility’. In the real world, such vehicles may not absorb their own energy as efficiently as they should and could pose a higher threat to other road users.

The Audi Q5 – a mid-size SUV with a test curb weight of 2,245 kg – was found to offer poor compatibility when colliding with an oncoming vehicle. Analysis of the deceleration of the impact trolley during the test, and analysis of the deformable barrier after the test, revealed that the Audi Q5 would be overly aggressive toward another car in a frontal collision, with some parts of the front structure of the Q5 proving particularly unforgiving.

The new Volkswagen Tayron, another mid-size SUV, was also penalised for poor compatibility.

However, these outcomes are not unique. Previous evaluations performed by Euro NCAP have shown that, amongst others, the BMW iX, Land Rover Defender and Polestar 2 have all received the maximum penalty during MPDB testing, and the Alfa Romeo Tonale and BMW 2 Series Coupé have been deducted points for poor compatibility.

On the other hand, there have also been examples of good compatibility, such as the Mazda CX-60 and CX-80, cars where the manufacturer has shown significant effort to engineer energy-absorbing and load-distributing front structures to reduce the vehicle’s aggressiveness.

Euro NCAP points out that these cars aren’t necessarily unsafe as they all performed well in other aspects of its safety tests, including crash avoidance for car and vulnerable road user crashes.

Euro NCAP has called upon the vehicle industry to improve the vehicle crash compatibility of future models and “not to accept settling for the status quo”.

It believes its MPDB testing can help manufacturers engineer their cars and vans to better protect occupants in the event of a head-on collision.

Euro NCAP’s programme director Dr. Aled Williams said: “We know car manufacturers have the capability to design and build frontal structures that can better manage the proportions and mass of the vehicle and the violent change in momentum that comes with a frontal collision.

“We believe Euro NCAP’s impartial testing can bring about significant improvements in this critical sector of car safety, and we will continue to monitor the market developments in this area.”