What the new Euro NCAP protocols mean for trucks

Just before Christmas, CARHS ran a seminar running through a series of upcoming changes to the Euro NCAP truck protocols and standards. In the seminar, it was confirmed that from 2028, testing for HGVs will come into effect – which means that truck manufacturers everywhere will need to be ready. 

In this article, we’re breaking down what the new protocols mean for truck manufacturers, and explaining how you can prepare for Euro NCAP testing. 

What tests will HGVs be required to do? 

HGVs will have their own set of test protocols to follow. Early indications are that they will focus primarily on safe driving and crash avoidance systems, given the impracticalities of testing passive safety on HGVs. 

By the time HGV tests will be live, the tests will be split into four sections that mirror the Haddon Matrix that is commonly used in injury prevention. That means tests will be split into four categories: 

1. Safe driving: how well does the vehicle support safe driving. 

1. Crash avoidance: does the vehicle have systems that intervene to prevent crashes, and how well do they work? 

1. Crash protection: in the event of a crash, how well does the vehicle protect the driver, passengers, and other parties? 

1. Post-crash safety: what systems does the vehicle have to keep people safe after a crash, and alert authorities for help? 

ADAS technology generally addresses the first two of those categories. Speed assistance systems, for instance, are a safe driving technology, while autonomous emergency braking and lane support systems fall under crash avoidance. Essentially, the new tests will require truck manufacturers to install and test a wide range of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) on their trucks.  

Many trucks already have some form of ADAS, especially AEB, but the new tests are likely to demand a higher level of performance than is currently required.  

Why does it matter? 

On the one hand, of course, Euro NCAP and its sister organisations around the world exist to increase road safety, and to reduce accidents and deaths on the roads. By implementing standards for HGVs as well as commercial cars, Euro NCAP is addressing a major gap in its efforts to improve road safety. Despite only accounting for 3% of the vehicles on Europe’s roads, trucks are involved in almost 15% of all EU road fatalities, while accidents between trucks and vulnerable road users (VRUs) make up 25% of all EU fatalities. 

Beyond the goal of road safety, the implementation of star ratings for HGVs will give customers a new way to assess which trucks to choose when building their fleets. Simply put, customers know that if their fleets are involved in accidents, it’s bad for their brands; with that in mind, safety will be a major component of any buying decision. As a result, the Euro NCAP star rating of your trucks will become a vital piece of information for any purchase decision. A high rating could lead to new fleet contracts; a poor rating could cost millions in lost fleet renewals and lost opportunities. 

Ultimately, whatever your thoughts on Euro NCAP as a tool for road safety, achieving the top star ratings is going to be vital for any truck manufacturer that wants to stay competitive in Europe – and likely beyond, as other NCAP organisations adopt the standards. 

And that leads us to the next question: how do you prepare for the new protocols? 

Achieving the top Euro NCAP ratings 

Obviously, for an HGV to get the top Euro NCAP ratings it needs to feature the latest generation of ADAS technology, coupled with a high-quality design and build. But that’s only half the story. To get the rating, you need to validate the performance of your HGV in specified conditions – in other words, you have to demonstrate that your vehicle performs as expected through testing. 

To very quickly summarise how most car manufacturers currently approach the process: 

1. They design their systems, and may run virtual tests to validate the performance. 

1. Once the systems have been built into a test vehicle, the OEM will conduct some testing at their own facilities to ensure they have achieved the right level of performance. 

1. Official Euro NCAP tests need to take place at an accredited test house, of which there are 16 in Europe. OEMs will usually book some time at their test site for pre-testing, to ensure that they can replicate the test data they gathered on their own proving grounds at their chosen test house. 

1. The official tests are done. Usually, Euro NCAP asks to see the OEM’s test data and conducts a few tests in real life to validate the findings – though if they find discrepancies between the real life tests and the data they receive, they reserve the right to conduct all the tests again, at the OEM’s expense. 

It’s highly likely that HGV manufacturers will need to adopt the same process when the test protocols are released. The main driver of this process is the cost of testing at a test house – the full suite of tests can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. With that in mind, it makes sense to be as confident of the performance of your vehicle before you book any time in the test house. 

It’s also worth noting that some Euro NCAP test protocols are also going to focus on real-world performance, rather than just data gathered on the test track. This is a new change for Euro NCAP, as they try to ensure their protocols reflect real-world performance as much as possible. While we don’t yet know how this will look for HGVs, it’s something to consider when evaluating how you run your own tests. 

How to be confident in your test data 

In order to ensure their performance is as close to a real test as possible, most OEMs opt to use the same testing hardware as the test houses do – OXTS technology. The most common setup we see the test houses and car OEMs using is: 

• The RT3000 v4 provides high-quality position and motion data in both proving ground and open road tests, and is mounted in the vehicle under test (VUT). 

• The RT1003 v2 is a highly economical GNSS/INS that provides the same data for target vehicles when testing scenarios involving multiple vehicles. This enables you to ensure that every vehicle in your test scenario is behaving as it should. 

• RT-Range Suite is our vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-lane (V2L) testing software that gives you a wealth of real-time insights into the behaviour of every actor in your test scenario. 

This hardware is often supplemented with driving robots and guided platforms designed to carry soft targets representing other vehicles, pedestrians, motorcyclists, and more.  

As well as conducting your own real-world tests, you can use data gathered on the test track to validate your virtual tests with more confidence. Doing virtual testing this way enables you to cover a more variables – increased vehicle speed, for instance, or different weather conditions, and so on. This is vital, because Euro NCAP is increasing the range of test data they want to see to cover a wider range of scenarios, to make the protocols better reflect real-world conditions – though they are accepting virtual testing or simulated data as supporting evidence for many of these scenarios, recognising that it would be impractical to test every scenario on the test track. 

Reap the benefits of Euro NCAP ratings

Despite the additional testing burden that these changes will bring to HGV OEMs, the benefits of HGVs entering the Euro NCAP fold are large. A top Euro NCAP rating will enable you to win and retain more business, and improve your reputation as a manufacturer of safe vehicles. And, of course, the initiative should raise the standard of HGV safety across the industry, reducing road deaths and collisions. 

If you’re interested in learning more about creating your own HGV ADAS testing solution, using the same technology that the Euro NCAP test houses use, click below to learn more about how OXTS can help.