On Wednesday, 18 February 2009, Euro NCAP launched its new car safety rating scheme in Brussels, Belgium. The new rating scheme will have one overall star rating per vehicle tested and will include an extra element focussing on safety assistance. This is the first update to the rating system since 1997.
The scheme comprises four areas of assessment: Adult Occupant, Child Occupant, Pedestrian Protection and the new area of Safety Assist. The goal of Safety Assist is to score vehicles on active safety technologies such as Electronic Stability Control and driver assistance systems.
Scoring well in each area of assessment is imperative for the vehicle to achieve a good overall result. However, the overall star rating can be corrected downwards if any of the individual scores in the four assessment areas do not meet the minimum required level to obtain the overall star rating. This could result in vehicle model years having different star ratings.
To learn more about the new car safety rating scheme, visit www.euroncap.com .
