Australia Extends Funding for Vehicle Safety Testing

The Australian government is providing A$7.6 million ($5.7 million) to fund the Australasian New Car Assessment Program for another five years.

The funding will help ANCAP maintain its role in testing and assessing new cars, providing information for consumers about vehicle safety and general advocacy about safety on Australia’s roads.

Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher says vehicle-safety standards are an important part of moving toward fewer road deaths in Australia.

“The new funding commitment enables ANCAP to further broaden its range of tests, and expand its advocacy and community education activities,” ANCAP CEO James Goodwin says.

The Australian government joined ANCAP in 2010 and is one of 23 member organizations including the Australian and New Zealand automobile clubs, all Australian state and territorial governments and the New Zealand government.

Meanwhile, ANCAP has hosted one of Euro NCAP’s vehicle-safety-assessment inspectors as part of its reciprocal test-data sharing and protocol alignment.

Senior inspector Simon Edmonds visited ANCAP’s crash-test laboratories in Sydney and Melbourne for a week as part of a knowledge-sharing and development program involving ANCAP and its European counterpart.

“We not only adopted a common approach to testing, we also integrated policies and assessment processes which now are shared between our two regions,” Goodwin says.

ANCAP assessment engineers will attend crash and driver-assistance testing in the U.K. later this year.

Euro NCAP Secretary General Michiel van Ratingen says it is important to collaborate on all levels.

“Our approach to align with ANCAP from this year is already seeing vehicle manufacturers build cars to a higher standard for both world markets,” he says.