Recently, the New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN NCAP), together with Nissan distributor Edaran Tan Chong Motor (ETCM), organised a press conference talking about the impressive safety performance of the latest Nissan to be put to the test, the Nissan Teana.
Tested late last year, the D-segment sedan scored a full five-star rating in the 40% offset frontal crash test at 64 km/h, for both adult occupant protection (AOP) and child occupant protection (COP); the latter is the first in the agency. In fact, the Teana scored a perfect 16 points in AOP, by default making it the highest-scoring that has ever, and will ever be tested by ASEAN NCAP.
The car tested was a Thai-market 2.0XL – which gets extra active safety kit like blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning and rear cross-traffic alert in addition to our standard six airbags and stability control – but the crash protection should be identical to Malaysian-market vehicles.
ASEAN NCAP secretary-general Khairil Anwar Abu Kassim said that the agency was stunned by the result, adding that full marks for AOP – good protection for all areas on both driver and front passenger dummies – are difficult to achieve even in cars that perform well in crashes. “We were afraid that there was something wrong with our system, but we have thoroughly checked it,” he said.
Child restraint system (CRS) specialist Yahaya Ahmad explained how the Teana managed to achieve such a remarkable score. “If you look at the crash test, you can see how the car interacts with the barrier – a lot of energy has been absorbed by the crumple zone in the engine area, which is why the energy transferred to the child sitting behind is very little,” he said.
“The Teana scores very well in kinematic/dynamic performance for both children and adults, which is very important in scoring good points. Whatever happens at the front, even if it is a total loss, is not a problem, as long as the occupant compartment where you sit has no deformation, so that you have enough survival space in a crash.”
Next, updates to the testing and rating system, both current and in the future, were talked about. The first change is that from 2015 onwards, the requirement for a three-star rating now includes passing the UN R95 side impact test – it was previously only needed for a four-star AOP rating.
Even bigger changes await – come 2017, the agency will use a single-rating system for each model for the entire region, replacing the different ratings used for cars that have differing safety equipment in different countries. This was outlined in the recent ASEAN NCAP 2017-2020 road map presented at an international conference in Bandung, Indonesia recently, and is said to be a natural progression of the programme.
There are plenty of reasons for this move, the first being to eliminate confusion among consumers in the region and to prevent miscommunication by certain manufacturers when marketing their vehicles.
“We found that the dual rating system has been manipulated by some manufacturers in their car advertisements,” Khairil said last week. “For example, a car model which received a three-star safety rating was marketed [with a five-star rating], which was actually awarded to a different variant of the same model.”
Earlier, Khairil told us that the agency also wanted to close the gap between the disparate safety standards of each country in the region, and that the single-rating system will provide the impetus to manufacturers to provide a similarly high safety specification to all countries. “We want to give the ball to the manufacturers. It’s their call,” he said.
Apart from standardising the ratings for all markets, ASEAN NCAP will also move to just a single overall rating that takes into account both the car’s AOP and COP performance. “It will be 50% for AOP and 25% for COP to ensure a vehicle receives the highest star award and also provides the best protection for the child inside a car,” he said.
The agency is also moving to incorporating the next driver assistance systems into its ratings – safety assist technologies (SAT) such as ABS, stability control, blind spot monitoring and automated emergency braking (AEB) will be evaluated by 2017, contributing another 25% to the overall rating.
“Crash avoidance is our next objective.” Khairil said. “This reflects our effort to put pressure on the car manufacturers to install more safety features and produce safer cars.”
So, there you have it – with the Nissan Teana maxing out the current scoring system, ASEAN NCAP is now moving to make its ratings tougher and more in step with new and upcoming technology. The future of safety in the region is getting more and more interesting by the minute, and we can’t wait to see where it goes next.
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Allow only the lowest spec model for testing.
no need cheating.
Anything under cronies like Proton are cheaters… ETCM did a great job will need to wait and hope lowest spec to improve in future too.
You mean they paid kopi money to Aussie NCAP for their 5 stars? Who knew gweilo oso not credible.
When Japs got 5 stars bashers say oh this is good, but when p1 got they say it is cheater, topkek
You just need a “bigger”, “softer” and “lighter” body to absorb all the impact.
Proton cannot be trusted anymore after our own Dieselgate scandal. Now the Saga is actually 1 star and not 3 stars.
For every lie, many lies are still buried. Don’t know what other car Proton has lied and cheated.
Typical Proton, always cheating the public since 1985.
The rating 3 star comes from AOP, it will remain 3 star even though without top tether. Only COP will be affected by the removal of top tether.
Anyway, maybe it is true that proton cheated a few things, who knows. But in my opinion, other OEMs have cheated more and pretty obvious too. Missing reinforcement, missing safety features, using old tech components (while the other variant outside Asean has use new tech).
Give a 5-star car for test, then sell 3-star cars to the rest. Proton is the VW ‘dieselgate’ of the east.
Try test european cars like BMW 7 series, MINI,MERC E/S Class. I believe Asean Ncap pesonnel will stunn again. They should raise the benchmark, it sounds easy to earn high score now.
if this european, ckd in malaysia fail the test… how?
would asean ancap publish it?
If they test “China” car Volvo, they’ll pengsan. Wake up call for them to realise difference between Volvo of Asia and the real Volvo.
Frontal impact test protocol in aseancap is quite similar to last year euroncap frontal impact. The result will be similar for longitudinal engine, but worse if they are using transverse engine (right hand drive result is normally worse than left hand drive)
Sam Loo wil says his camry will still score 5 stars in RV and that teana results is too good to be true must be kopi money.
sam loo will say test invalid because done at 64km/h. people drive faster and will die in accident. better buy vios j, good rv that you can bring to afterlife.
the next gen Teana will rocks!
Camry sure score lower mark that’s y u didn’t see any result from Toyota
If one star for one airbag, Camry score two star only. How to show?
Teana in kl is actually very rare… Hardly see any on da road compare to the cars it competes against, very strange…. Even though almost all reviews say its really a good solid car… Dont know if it s jus lack of marketing by TC or the design is not very welcoming…
Nothing surprising, Malaysian will only look at Toyota and Honda. Since the prefacelift Camry is not up to mark, they opted for Accord. I bet now Camry is selling quite well again after facelift, seeing so many Hybrid Camry on the road. To me this Teana is overall a good car compared to both the Camry and Accord, at least from NVH area it is definitely better than Accord. Look is subjective but to me Teana is a good looking car, both exterior and interior.
ETCM kill themselves. Like launch a car 150k, then keep telling people price will increase 10k+ later, faster book.
Then after one year, still 150k without much sales. Then instead of increase 10k+, they have rebate/discount 10k+.
Another thing they need to train the salesman more, 1 out of 2 salesman in Nissan will say CVTC is a good gearbox and, their car more stable than Vios.
Anyway, isn’t Teana has the smallest interior of the three?
You are plainly a basher.
1)No such thing as CVTC gearbox, CVTC is engine technology. You must have meant CVT gearbox. In any case, do your research before commenting.
2) Teana has the biggest interior among all 3 cars, unfortunately the brand value is the lowest. Again, you did not do your research before commenting.
So, do your research before commenting, cause it seems like you are a Toyota/Honda Salesman instead.
Ehem, CVTC is engine, not gearbox. CVTC technology is similar to VVTi, VTEC etc..
If you are referring to gearbox, Nissan Teana is using Next Generation Xtronic CVT gearbox…
Looks like ur lacking of general knowledge, dont blame the salesman they dont have degree or masters or experience much as the buyer. #1RULE The buyer need to know more than the salesman before buying the car.
It’s like scoring 4 flat in your GPA. We can only say ‘Well done’ to Nissan and hope the rest will follow suit
Apa ni Volvo of Asia, Datsun pun lagi selamat?
Datsun GO 0 ncap stars. Apa lagi u mau?
Still no proper side impact tests, with more detailed results than pass or no pass? Even lousy cars without side airbags can pass the UN R95 test, which makes me question just how bad a car has to be for it not to pass. Usually cars without side airbags can’t pass side impact tests…
Whats the point of having Asean NCAP when we have US, Europe & Japan NCAP? Personally, i think it’s just a waste of money & resources. Asen Gov should just follow 1 of the more establish standards. What’s the point of scoring 5 star in Asean if can only score 3/4 star in Euro Ncap?
car have different safety feature depend where it is sold. and asean normally got lower safety spec. so if around the world use same ncap, they should test the lowest model from asean. imagine trying to sell camry in europe/us with only 2 airbag, no esc. for sure nobody buy. so think this as a start, and hopefully in the future we will get similar safety spec to those sold in europe/us so that we can straight refer their ncap.
What’s the point of Having Asean NCAP when we have a more established and reliable US/Europe/Japan NCAP?
Why waste money & resources on this type of assessment?
What’s the point of scoring 5 star in Asean NCAP but can only score 3/4 Star in European NCAP?
Asean government should use their resources in reducing car prices and improving quality and safety of all cars for the safety of all drivers!
Not all cars marketed in asean also marketed in us or europe, so to some extent it is still necessary
yeap, no vios selling in us/europe …he3x …how to sell there, no stability control & just 2 airbags max!
So there you have it, come back in 2017/18 to purchase a safer car provided the currency isn’t at USD1 = MYR6
RM75k in North Asia, North America, Europe, Australasia continent, but in Dr M proton land starting from RM138k with 2 airbags. Thanks to Dr M and his Proton vision we rakyats are forced to be slaves and pay extreme high prices for foreign mass market cars. Thank you so much Dr M for making our lives already difficult and more difficult. Thank you for your failed proton you’re too egoistic to protect so hard and still dare to admit it’s better than BMW and still wanna ask government for money.
Dr. M says RM75k Suprima S got more airbags than RM138k Teana. Confirm better and higher quality. Got Lotus handling sticker is hidden cost around RM80k extra. SuprimaS should sell at RM155k+ with lotus handling sticker. And Proton still need to pay royalties to Thundercats for the logo. Thank god we are using black & white, so the royalties is cheaper.
Proud to be owning one. No complaints, so comfort n quite.