4.2 Current NHTSA Testing to EU Regulation

NHTSA has initiated a research program to assess the performance of U.S. compliant vehicles using EU Directive 96/27/EC. The vehicles included in this program are identical in design to vehicles tested to FMVSS 214 by NHTSA in the compliance test program. Three of these vehicles have also been included in the side impact New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). The selected vehicles are listed in Table 1. The test results will be evaluated to determine the level of safety performance of the vehicles in the matrix for both the U.S. and EU regulation and establish the probability of occupant injury based on the injury measures.

The detailed selection criteria for the vehicles in Table 1 can be found in Appendix A. In addition to selecting vehicles previously tested to FMVSS 214, the vehicles chosen have shown a range of side impact performance results based on the TTI(d) injury measure. Vehicles were also chosen to be representative of the major manufacturers.

Table 1 - Vehicles to be Tested to EU Side Impact Regulation

To date, NHTSA has met with industry through MVSRAC on January 10 and February 24, 1997. In the first meeting, the agency presented both its immediate proposal for testing U.S. compliant vehicles to the current EU standard and the agency's overall side crash protection research program. The MVSRAC industry members were asked to participate with NHTSA in the first phase of testing by providing data from vehicles tested to the Directive 96/27/EC, or by providing vehicles that NHTSA could test independently. The industry was responsive and, to date, the result of this request was the following: GM has supplied a Geo Metro; Chrysler will be supplying data for the Dodge Stratus; Ford has loaned NHTSA a EUROSID-1 dummy plus instrumentation and is supplying a Ford Taurus and possibly a Ford Thunderbird; Volvo is supplying a Volvo 850; Mitsubishi has provided test data for the Mitsubishi Eclipse; Saab has provided data for the Saab 900s; and Volkswagen/Audi has provided partial data for the Audi 90. Ford has also recently conducted EU standard testing for their Taurus and Contour vehicles and will be supplying the data to NHTSA. It is worth noting that with the exception of test data to be supplied by Ford, the data supplied from the other manufacturers are from earlier EU side impact testing. Such testing utilized MDB faces from different suppliers with varying dynamic responses. NHTSA will not be able to use these data in its primary analysis because industry and agency experience has shown that using MDBs with varying dynamic response in EU side impact testing will lead to unpredictable vehicle performance.

In parallel with FMVSS 214 requirements, NHTSA is using two EUROSID-1 dummies in its EU side impact testing, a dummy in the driver's position and a dummy in the rear right seat passenger position. This is in contrast to using only one dummy in the driver position as specified in the EU Directive 96/27/EC. This will provide data to compare with existing FMVSS 214 data for the same vehicles. The use of a rear seat dummy will be an issue that will have to be resolved with the EU. The agency's position is that the protection for the rear seat occupant must be provided by any side impact regulation in that the relaxation of this requirement would be a reduction in safety benefits that are in the present U.S. standard.