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Taiwan New Car Assessment Program
Vehicle safety rating program in Taiwan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Taiwan New Car Assessment Program (TNCAP; traditional Chinese: 臺灣新車安全評等制度; simplified Chinese: 台湾新车安全评等制度; pinyin: Táiwān Xīnchē Ānquán Píng Děng Zhìdù) is a vehicle safety rating program for vehicles sold in Taiwan, similar to the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) in other countries. It is administered by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and conducted in the Automotive Research & Testing Center in Lukang, Changhua County, Taiwan.
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History
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In 2016, a petition about the safety of domestically manufactured vehicles was passed on the Public Policy Participation Platform. The petition demanded that the crash test results of domestically manufactured vehicles performed by the Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC) should be compulsorily released.[1]
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) replied to the petition that such system would be similar to NCAP of other countries, and it would need "enormous budget" to carry out. They evaluated that there was not an immediate need for a NCAP in Taiwan, and encouraged manufacturers to release crash test results themselves.[2]
In 2017, another petition about establishing Taiwan NCAP (TW-NCAP) was passed on the Public Policy Participation Platform. The petition mentioned that neighboring countries like China, Japan, Korea and even ASEAN countries have their own NCAP, for example C-NCAP and ASEAN NCAP, then Taiwan should also have its own NCAP to test domestically manufactured vehicles.[3]
This petition attracted the attention of the legislature and the MOTC, which both agreed to start working towards establishing TW-NCAP. The MOTC and the Vehicle Safety Certification Center (VSCC) organised a symposium and agreed that TW-NCAP would be modelled after the rating system of Euro NCAP and the organizational structure of Japan NCAP (JNCAP).[4]
In 2018, the Executive Yuan approved the establishment of TNCAP, with a budget of $600 million NTD.[5] On 26 August 2022, the TNCAP Testing Facility was inaugurated in the site of the Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC) in Lukang, Changhua County.[6] The first crash test was performed with a Toyota Corolla Cross on 27 October 2022.[7]
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Assessment
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Vehicle selection
For Euro NCAP, vehicle models are chosen by member organizations based on the relevancy in their respective domestic markets, and vehicle manufacturers can pay for the testing themselves.[8] TNCAP's vehicle selection works differently by selecting vehicle models that are in the top 8 best selling vehicle models in Taiwan.[9][10]
In 2024, Nissan X-trail and Honda CR-V became the first two vehicle models to voluntarily apply for TNCAP assessment. This means the manufacturers provided the expense to TNCAP, as required, for the assessment.[11]
Similar to Euro NCAP, test vehicles for TNCAP are purchased anonymously from dealerships, in the same way that consumers do. This task is entrusted to the Consumers’ Foundation, which dispatches undercover shoppers to purchase these vehicles.[12]
Testing criteria
Similar to Euro NCAP, TNCAP performs safety tests in four main criteria, with a percentage score given to each of them. The four main criteria and their respective tests are as follows:[13]
Test dummy
TNCAP uses the following test dummies from Humanetics for their crash tests:
- Hybrid III — 50th Percentile Male (H3-50M) as the adult driver, front seat or rear seat passenger
- Q10 Child dummy, simulating a 10-year-old child and used as a rear seat passenger
- Q6 Child dummy, simulating a 6-year-old child and used in a car seat at the rear seat
The Q10 and Q6 Child dummies are only used in the "Frontal Offset Deformable Barrier" test and "Lateral Impact" test.
Star rating
Similar to Euro NCAP, although a percentage score is given to each of the testing criteria, a star rating is used to evaluate the overall safety of a vehicle model. This allows the public to easily differentiate between the safety rating of different models.[14][15]
The star rating ranges from 0 stars to 5 stars, with 0 stars being the worst and 5 stars being the best.[15]
- 5 stars
: Overall excellent performance on crash protection and well equipped with crash avoidance technology - 4 stars
: Overall good performance on crash protection and equipped with some crash avoidance technology - 3 stars : Above average performance on crash protection, but lacking in crash avoidance technology
- 2 stars : Average performance on crash protection, and lacking in crash avoidance technology
- 1 star : Above basic performance on crash protection
- 0 stars : Meets the minimal standard of safety required by law
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Safety ratings
TNCAP has tested 12 vehicles models so far, with six vehicle models receiving 5 stars, three vehicle models receiving 4 stars and three vehicle models receiving 3 stars.[16]
Future
TNCAP has announced that they selected 8 vehicle models to test in 2025. These vehicles models are MG HS, Tesla Model 3, Honda HR-V, Toyota Vios, Lexus RX, Hyundai Custin, Toyota Town Ace and Hyundai Tucson L.[31]
References
External links
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