What's the news?
Earlier this year we saw castigating reports coming from both India and Latin America over lax safety standards for new cars. Just as in Europe, there are crash tests for cars sold in those regions, organised and conducted by the New Car Assessment Programme - NCAP. But where EuroNCAP generally records a string of four-and-five star results, its compatriots at LatinNCAP and elsewhere are recording too many one-and zero star results. Car makers, it seems, are valuing the lives of their European and North American customers more highly than those of their counterparts in South America and similar emerging car markets.
This week, two car makers have come under fire from LatinNCAP for poor crash test performance. BYD is a Chinese company (the acronymic name stands for Build Your Dreams) and its F0 model recorded a zero-star result in LatinNCAP's test. The odd thing is that the F0 is basically a re-badged version of the old Peugeot 107 which scored a decent, if unexceptional, score of three-stars in its own EuroNCAP test. The reason? De-contenting, or taking out equipment in order to keep the price down. Just as Irish car buyers once had to put up with one wing mirror or no radio so as to make the sticker price cheaper, so customers in Latin America are now doing without something far more vital - airbags.
María Fernanda Rodríguez, Latin NCAP chairperson said that "these Latin NCAP results again show how some manufacturers in the region still do not make safety, and more specifically child safety, as a priority. In the last six years and as the voice of consumers, we have been asking governments and manufacturers to work with us and other organisations to democratise car safety, so that all countries in our region provide the same safety levels no matter the price of the car. Our citizens deserve the same vehicle safety as Europeans, Japanese, Australians and North Americans citizens receive."
Fiat is also in LatinNCAP's crosshairs this week, after its Palio achieved just a one-star score, although overall it was a massive improvement on the BYD. According to LatinNCAP, the Palio (which shares some structure with the Panda and Punto) did well on the side impact test but recoded unacceptably high chest loads for the driver in the frontal impact test. The one-star score is disappointing, then, but LatinNCAP said that it was a better performance overall than some others have managed. Alejandro Furas, Secretary General of Latin NCAP said "it is a major concern for Latin NCAP that in 2016 some models are still offered without airbags. The F0 aims to emulate the Peugeot 107, a model that when launched had 100 per cent frontal airbags, to do so it would have been important that F0 not only the look the same but also have the same safety features. Despite the poor result for the adult protection, the side impact of the New Palio was a positive surprise with a good performance for a popular locally developed model."