KAJANG: The Asean New Car Assessment Programme (Asean NCAP), under the auspices of the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research, is moving to a new phase and will become a recognised body to assess the safety aspects of new cars in Asean.
Its secretary-general, Khairil Anwar Abu Kassim, said Asean NCAP would be fully operational next August and carry out safety tests on new cars periodically.
“Under the three-phase tests, which started in January 2013, we have gathered results of at least ten tests before releasing them. So far we have rated 29 types of cars,” he told Bernama here.
Khairi said the tests involved new cars for use in Asean and all tests were carried out at the two laboratories – MIROS Provisional Car Crash Centre in Malacca and Japan Automobile Research Institute laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan.
He said the majority of the cars tested achieved four-star rating for Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) and some models received five stars.
“The results showed that cars from Japanese companies received a minimum of four stars,” he said.
Khairi said cars from Europe and US also passed the tests, receiving a minimum of four stars for AOP.
For local cars, he said, Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd (Proton) also received four to five stars for new cars, including Proton Preve and Suprima S, which received five stars for AOP under the tests carried out in October 2013.
“This shows that one of the roles of Asean NCAP is to ensure that all new car manufacturers followed all aspects of safety before selling the cars to the public,” he said. — Bernama