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Old 29th October 2021, 13:31   #1
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New and tougher IIHS side crash test stumps US market small SUVs

Global NCAP will include a similar test from 2022



In response to high speed crashes involving small SUVs that continue to cause fatalities, The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has introduced a new, tougher side crash test.

The first batch of tests have been run on 2020-21 models sold in the US market and as expected most of them have performed poorly. Just one out of the 20 small SUVs tested, 2021 Mazda CX-5, earned a "Good" rating on this test.



Incidentally, this new test was an improvement on an existing side impact test that was first introduced in 2003. And all 20 small SUVs tested under this new protocol had received a "Good" rating under the old protocol.

New and tougher IIHS side crash test stumps US market small SUVs-iihsupdated_side_impact_test_resultssmall_suv2021.png

The existing test was upgraded because an analysis of data from 2019 indicated that side impacts still accounted for 23 percent of passenger vehicle occupant deaths in the US. Another analysis of accident data accumulated over 10 years found that if you drive a vehicle rated "Good", you are 70 percent less likely to die in a driver side impact crash than if you are are driving a vehicle rated "Poor", further establishing the importance of side impact protection.

So why is this relevant for India? It is important to note that, unlike the European NCAP, the Global NCAP's testing protocol for Indian market cars do not include yet include a comparable side impact test as a standard. Only a few cars that score 5 stars (or if manufacturers request it) are tested for their side impact safety.

However from next year onward, the Global NCAP will incorporate a standard side impact test. While Indian manufacturers such as Tata and Mahindra have worked hard to raise the importance of safety in the eyes of the Indian consumer, it remains to be seen which of our small SUVs emulate the Mazda CX-5.

(source: IIHS)
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Old 29th October 2021, 21:06   #2
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Re: New and tougher IIHS side crash test stumps US market small SUVs

The IIHS has always used in-house barriers that are taller and larger than the industry standard. The 2003 test that you mentioned used an MDB with 1500kg total mass, with an in-house developed honeycomb barrier face mounted to an FMVSS 214 specification trolley modified to accommodate the taller barrier. Test speed was 50km/h.

The updated 2021 test with a new barrier has a test speed of 60km/h with a total barrier mass of 1900kg. The barrier is said to represent the mass of modern SUVs and pickup trucks more accurately and the barrier face is now shorter.

New and tougher IIHS side crash test stumps US market small SUVs-sidebarriersdsc_1779.jpg
The updated 2021 IIHS barrier (left) with the old IIHS barrier (right)

Quote:
Originally Posted by superstarksa View Post
Global NCAP will include a similar test from 2022
Informative post, but note that the side impact test that will be used by Global NCAP from July 2022 is very different from the latest IIHS one or even the older IIHS one, for that matter. The main differences are in the movable barrier used and test speed (I'm not sure about instrumentation and dummies.)

The Global NCAP test will use the standard MDB prescribed by UN ECE Regulation 95. Test speed is 50km/h. The test configuration and lower performance and capping limits are presumably identical to UN95, but I'll have to verify this. It's a 950kg barrier.


New and tougher IIHS side crash test stumps US market small SUVs-ernst_crashsystemsmbeuroecer95header.jpg
The barrier used for the UNECE R95 test

Euro NCAP on the other hand uses a more modern barrier than that, called the AE-MDB (Advanced European Movable Deformable Barrier) which weighs 1300kg for the standard side test. The test speed was 50km/h until 2019 and was revised to 60km/h in 2020.
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The AE-MDB barrier used by Euro NCAP

To conclude, the IIHS barrier is twice as heavy as the barrier Global NCAP will use, and the test speed is higher by 10km/h.
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Old 30th October 2021, 12:39   #3
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Re: New and tougher IIHS side crash test stumps US market small SUVs

Thank you for adding all the additional info! This was very informative.

Quote:
To conclude, the IIHS barrier is twice as heavy as the barrier Global NCAP will use, and the test speed is higher by 10km/h.
When I saw that linked IIHS article elsewhere (and having bought a Nexon recently), I wanted to check what the G-NCAP tests were. And I found that not even the Nexon has been subjected to the UN95 side impact test.

So I realized that this may have ramifications for all the current vehicles sold here including the ones with 5 star ratings.

Thanks again!
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Old 2nd November 2021, 11:23   #4
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Re: New and tougher IIHS side crash test stumps US market small SUVs

Quote:
Originally Posted by superstarksa View Post
And I found that not even the Nexon has been subjected to the UN95 side impact test.
ADAC Technik Zentrum tested the 2018 Tata Nexon in UNECE R95 configuration for Global NCAP. The car passed the technical and performance requirements of the test*. It has been a requirement for 5 stars for adult occupant protection in Global NCAP tests at least since the minor August 2017 revision in assessment protocol.

The UNECE R95 test video for the Tata Nexon can be found within the Global NCAP test video, because in this case the side impact was a requirement for the assessment. The side impact test starts at the 0:58 timestamp in the video:


Unlike the Mahindra XUV300 and Thar, Global NCAP made no qualitative statement about the car's side impact performance beyond ECE95 requirements, though there is a possibility they will reuse the test data to assess the car for side impact under the next assessment protocol (where side impact will be in identical test configuration to UN95 but will be assessed out of 16.00).

*I use the word 'performance requirements' because Global NCAP maintains that for 5 adult protection stars a car must be tested for R95 even if it is not covered under R95's scope requirements. The performance requirements are detailed in section 5.2 of the regulation and there are additional technical requirements in section 5.3 (for example, door opening during the test, which is why recent Latin NCAP results for some cars claim that a car fails UN95 when a door opens during the test).

Last edited by ron178 : 2nd November 2021 at 11:27.
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Old 18th May 2022, 09:45   #5
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Re: New and tougher IIHS side crash test stumps US market small SUVs

ID.4 and CX-9 top second round of results for updated IIHS side impact: IIHS.

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Last edited by ron178 : 18th May 2022 at 10:00.
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Old 18th May 2022, 11:29   #6
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Re: New and tougher IIHS side crash test stumps US market small SUVs

When cars nowadays do speeds in excess of 100 km/h, I don't understand why the frontal safety tests are done at 50, 60, 64 km/h. The crash test speeds should be more than 80km/h to increase the safety of passengers. There have been tests at such high speeds where the structure performed poorly.

With modern design and advanced materials, this can definitely be done. At least the luxury car makers who anyhow charge more money, can start experimenting with high speed crash tests. Gradually the cost will come down just like we have airbags as standard on small cars which was not the case a few decades ago.

Now some might say that no matter how safe the car is, the human body can't absorb sudden declaration. But there are cases where people have survived even plane crashes right? So let's stop worrying about human bodies and start building safer car bodies.

Some videos:



Last edited by CarNerd : 18th May 2022 at 11:30.
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