ACEA

Auto industry welcomes new Euro NCAP Awards as recognition for its sustained investment in life-saving technologies

Paris, 1st October 2010 – The European automobile manufacturers welcome the introduction of the Euro NCAP Advanced Awards as an important recognition of their sustained and progressive investments in life-saving technologies and safety systems.

A first set of the Advanced Awards was handed out today at the Paris motor show by Euro NCAP, the European New Car Assessment Programme run by a number of governments and motoring clubs in the EU. Euro NCAP is best known for its star-rating of cars based on how these perform in a crash test. The newest safety features, however, focus on accident prevention rather than impact mitigation. The traditional tests cannot sufficiently assess the major benefits that these advanced systems bring to drivers and other road users.

“Advanced safety systems are an important feature in our cars and the Awards will help provide our customers with essential information about the new technologies and the expected life-saving benefits”, said Ivan Hodac, Secretary-General of ACEA, the auto industry’s Brussels based trade association. “The auto industry has worked closely with Euro NCAP to develop the new test protocol, and we will continue bringing in new candidate technologies for future assessment.”

The European auto industry is leading in safety and environmental technologies and consistently sustains high investments in ground-breaking R&D. With over €26 billion invested in R&D each year, the ACEA members are the largest private investors in R&D in
Europe.

The European automotive industry is a keen supporter of the EU objective to reduce fatalities from traffic. Over the past decades, so-called passive safety systems such as seatbelts and airbags have played a major role in road casualty reduction and the technologies involved have
been constantly further improved. In addition, the safety of more vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists has been increased as well with improvements in bonnet design and collapsible mirrors. Many ‘active’ safety features including ABS and electronic stability control are now fitted as standard as well. Most vehicles, today, boast a maximum five-star rating from Euro NCAP.

The new generation of safety technologies is often referred to as Advanced Driver Assistant Systems (ADAS) and aim to help the driver in mastering the situation on the road. These systems use sensors, radar and video imaging to monitor the surroundings of a vehicle. Examples of the technologies include blind-spot monitoring, active cruise control and lanedeparture warning. Technological innovation will continue to help reduce road accidents and the European industry will remain at the forefront of progress. At the same time, however, efforts must be made to improve the traffic circumstances with intelligent and well-designed infrastructure and supported by road traffic law enforcement. The auto industry promotes an integrated approach to road safety in which all stakeholders play their part.

About ACEA
The European automotive industry is key to the strength and competitiveness of Europe. The ACEA members are BMW Group, DAF Trucks, Daimler, FIAT Group, Ford of Europe, General Motors Europe, Jaguar Land Rover, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, Porsche, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Renault Group, Scania, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group, Volvo Cars, Volvo Group. They provide direct employment to more than 2.3 million people and indirectly support another 10 million jobs. Annually, ACEA members invest over €26 billion in R&D, or
5% of turnover.

For further information, please contact Sigrid de Vries, Director Communications, ACEA   +32 485 88 66 47 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Please also visit http://www.acea.be

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