New van safety rating slams 1 in 4 new models

December 16, 2020

A surge in home deliveries means the UK van market is booming – but new tests by Euro NCAP and Thatcham Research suggest many new models are failing to meet even minimum standards for safety.

The two organisations have, for the first time, conducted safety tests on vans, similar to the Euro NCAP crash tests already carried out on new cars.

Alarmingly, from the group of 19 vans to first go through the new testing regime, five performed so poorly they failed even to achieve a basic ‘bronze’ rating and were thus deemed ‘not recommended’.

Only three new vans earned the top gold rating.

As vans are involved in more accidents causing fatal injuries than any other vehicle on UK roads, the results are alarming.

“The first batch of test results show the fitment of crucial safety technology on vans is woefully low,” said Thatcham Research director Matthew Avery.

“It’s a serious issue that needs addressing urgently, particularly with van numbers increasing.”

Vans ‘less safe than cars’

The organisations chose 19 vans in the first commercial van safety rating tests. These represent 98 percent of the new van market in the UK.

Less than 13 percent of new vans feature autonomous emergency braking (AEB), they discovered. For cars, the fitment rate is 2 in 3 new models, and rising all the time.

“There is a definite lack of parity between the levels of collision avoidance technology on vans compared to cars. Modern cars have lots as standard, but vans have barely any,” said Mr Avery.

Accusing vehicle manufacturers of withholding safety technology on vans to keep costs down, Mr Avery called it a “ridiculous situation because the systems already exist and could be fitted if they wanted them to be”.

There were more than four million vans on UK roads in 2019, with numbers increasing all the time thanks to the surge in home deliveries caused by the coronavirus.

Fitting more safety technology to vans will “reduce collissions, create parity between cars and vans, and help protect the public from serious injury and death”.