China's booming car industry celebrated the birth of its own world-class vehicle safety system yesterday with a new vehicle assessment program.

 

Tsinghua University and China Automobile Association (CAA) signed an agreement in Beijing to launch the New Car Assessment Program in China (NCAP China).

 

CAA will provide a launch-fund of 30 million yuan (US$3.72 million) for the first phase (five years) of the project.

 

"This is not about creating a competing standard with the Chinese Government's minimum vehicle safety standard," said Zhang Jinhuan, director of Tsinghua's renowned Accident Crash Lab. "The NCAP standards are complementary to and support existing governmental standards."

 

NCAP, founded in 1978 in the US, is the most popular industry standard for vehicle safety evaluation in the world, especially for new cars.

 

When they enter the market, NCAP tests them by crashing them at high speed, and allows scientists to measure and analyze safety performance. It then gives out fair and transparent data and reports about the results of the tests.

 

NCAP aims to raise consumer awareness of vehicle safety as well as help car manufacturers improve the safety design features of their vehicles.

 

"We will be contributing funding, expertise and a deep connection with and understanding of China's drivers. Our expertise in NCAP comes from our parent company, IAG, being a founding member of NCAP in Australia 15 years ago," said Richard Harding, chief executive officer of CAA.

 

Harding said China "needs a world-class consumer-based vehicle safety standard that builds confidence in the safety of cars."

 

"To enter the international market, China's auto brands must break market entry barriers. That is one of the objectives of NCAP China," added Harding.

 

"The crash tests and research conducted under NCAP China will provide rich, in-depth automobile safety data to car manufacturers, so that they can improve their product designs. This not only improves the safety of cars being driven on China's roads, but also must be good for the export sale of Chinese manufactured cars abroad," said Zhang of Tsinghua.

 

(China Daily January 13, 2006)