There was a recent announcement by the people at ASEAN NCAP, the people in charge of testing the safety of new cars sold in the ASEAN or most parts of Southeast Asia. The New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN NCAP) recently crash tested four models during its third and fourth quarter of 2018. The tested models comprised the new Suzuki Swift, the new Proton X70, Wuling Confero and Tata Super Ace. This short piece is on two of the vehicles sold here in Malaysia, the X70 and the Super Ace. The Confero (fortunately not here- zero rated NCAP) and Swift (4 Star NCAP) aren't available officially in Malaysia.
ASEAN NCAP had assessed the soon to be launched Proton X70. The new SUV had achieved cumulative score of 89.24 points after the crash testing. Based on the overall score, this first SUV from Proton achieved 48.99 points for AOP, 20.80 points for COP (Child Occupant Protection) and 19.44 points for SATs category. The new X70 comes with six airbags, ESC, SBR for frontal occupants, ISOFIX and top tether as standard. With this achievement, ASEAN NCAP awarded the Proton X70 with 5-Star rating.
In short, the folks at ASEAN NCAP have deemed that the upcoming SUV from Proton. ASEAN NCAP Secretary-General, Ir. Dr. Khairil Anwar Abu Kassim had mentioned that the organisation is pleased that car manufacturers are actually working for safer vehicles to be on the road giving a vast scope for many more lives to save. The recent excellent assessment of the Suzuki Swift and Proton X70 depicted the effort that needs to be follow through by other manufacturers to improve their vehicle safety features."
"Unfortunately, there are still cars sold with no fitment of basic safety features such as airbags. Although the models do offer variants with better safety features, they are available only as an optional fitment. This surely affect the price of such variant compared to the ones without such safety features. Hence, we need to make sure these safety features are filtered through even to the most basic variant so that everyone would be able to enjoy its benefits.” added Dr. Khairil.
The statement by Dr Khairil above on the lack of safety features ring true in terms of the Tata Super Ace tested by ASEAN NCAP. The small pickup lorry performed poorly with 19.15 points for AOP and 18.71 points for SATs categories. As the lorry has a single cab, therefore, ASEAN NCAP did not assess it for the COP category.
The Super Ace was not equipped with any airbag and any critical safety assist features namely ESC, ABS and SBR. With poor safety performances, the Tata Super Ace obtained an overall score of 19.15 points and is rated as Zero-Star rating.
But one must also note that the Tata Super Ace isn't a passenger car. It is actually a very small commercial vehicle designed to be as affordable as possible for street vendors and small time entrepreneurs that would like to conduct some small business (like the food trucks you see here). It has a 1.5liter diesel and is actually designed to be robust, reliable and fuel saving. In terms of safety, the Super Ace may actually offer as much safety as the other compact trucks you see in the market - I would also think that those China made trucks could actually be as bad.
Another thing that would need to be highlighted is the fact that the Malaysian government does not make it a regulation for commercial vehicles (in any size - even one as small as the Super Ace) to be fitted with Airbags or ABS etc. Testing a commercial vehicle and giving a rating meant for passenger vehicles usually never works out for a commercial vehicle. Try testing a small 1 ton Japanese truck and you will most likely have a slightly better result as most have ABS braking systems but no airbags internally.
So while it is good they are testing small commercial vehicles which operate much like a passenger car, it would only become comparable if government regulations insist that additional safety equipment are made compulsory to these vehicles.
Click on the visuals below to enlarge - Proton X70 & TATA Super Ace ASEAN NCAP test results-
No comments:
Post a Comment