On 18 January, the 2024 version of the C-NCAP (China New Car Assessment Programme) protocol was released. It’s an update of the 2021 version, informed by three years’ worth of research on road traffic accidents in China and developments in the Chinese automobile market, and in coordination with the international advanced new car safety evaluation system. The goals are to continuously improve the safety performance of China’s automobiles and make progress along the path from zero fatalities to zero casualties, and then to zero accidents.
Strong support was provided by the C-NCAP Expert Technical Committee in the formulation stage of the draft regulations, and valuable suggestions were received and considered from the whole industry during the public-comment period. The 2024 protocol takes effect on 1 July 2024.
Main revisions include:
Occupant Protection
- Frontal 100-per-cent overlapping rigid barrier collision speed has been increased, and the evaluation index of the chest of the second row of children’s dummies has been corrected
- The Side barrier collision speed has been increased; the honeycomb aluminium model at the front end of the mobile barrier has been altered, and the AE-MDB barrier is replaced by an SC-MDB barrier
- The side barrier crash test and the side pillar crash test are now required for all models
- Side pillar collision distal occupant evaluation and second-row child evaluation have been added
- A virtual assessment item has been added for the protection of occupants at the far end of the side pillar collision
- The whiplash test evaluation method has been optimised
- A bonus for active seat belts has been added
- Forgotten-child reminder function assessment has been added
- Curtain airbag pressure packing performance evaluation method has been improved
- Requirements increased for test and evaluation of electric vehicle scraping
- Virtual assessment added for occupant protection with active and passive safety integration
VRU Protection
- Combined pedestrian protection head shape test, leg shape test, and VRU automatic emergency braking (AEB VRU) test into the VRU protection section for integrated evaluation
- AEB VRU test now includes new intersection scenarios, and existing scenarios are optimized and upgraded: test parameters modified, and obstacles and child targets added.
Active Safety
- Based on the 2021 version of the AEB C2C system, new fork intersection scenarios, highway rear-end collision scenarios, and AEB misaction scenarios have been added.
- Lane support adds curve departure warning scenario and emergency lane keeping scenario, and optimises and modifies the parameters of blind spot monitoring scenarios
- Increased evaluation items for the vehicle door opening warning system
- Added rear traffic alert system evaluation items
- Added driver monitoring system evaluation items
- Added optional audit items for traffic signal recognition
- Added adaptive high beam measurement item
The official test procedure can be found online, but only in Chinese language. In appendix M, Vehicle lighting performance test procedures are defined for aiming and ADB.
