The Safe System
Approach in Action
The New Car Assessment
Program for Southeast AsianCountries
Case study

This case study is part of a package of materials accompanying the final report of a joint International
Transport Forum–World Bank Working Group, entitled The Safe System Approach in Action.
The case study was authored by Khairil Anwar Bin Abu Kassim (New Car Assessment Programme forSoutheast Asian Countries, ASEAN NCAP), Salina Binti Mustaffa (ASEAN NCAP), Yahaya Bin Ahmad (ASEAN
NCAP), Saiprasit Koetniyom (King Mongkut’s University of Technology, North Bangkok) and Jessica Truong(Towards Zero Foundation).
The ITF Secretariat would like to thank Soames Job for his edits to the case study. David Prater (ITF)
prepared the case study for publication. Veronique Feypell, Asuka Ito and Stephen Perkins (ITF) coordinated the Working Group’s activities.
Any findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do notnecessarily reflect the views of the International Transport Forum, the World Bank or the OECD. Neither
the OECD, the ITF, the World Bank nor the authors guarantee the accuracy of any data or other information
contained in this publication and accept no responsibility whatsoever for any consequence of their use.
This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any
territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory,
city or area.
Cite this work as: ITF (2022), “The New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian Countries”, ITF Case
Study, ITF, Paris.

Introduction
This case study was prepared by a joint International Transport Forum–World Bank Working Group
convened in 2020–2021. The case study forms part of a package of materials accompanying the Working
Group’s final report, The Safe System Approach in Action (ITF, 2022a).
The Safe System approach to road safety takes as its starting point the ethical position that there is noacceptable level of road deaths and serious injuries. The report proposes a framework for designing,
implementing and assessing projects with a Safe System focus. It draws on lessons from real-world casestudies to offer guidance on implementing Safe System interventions.
The Working Group analysed 17 case studies in total, paying special attention to their Safe System content.
While not every case study was a perfect example of the Safe System approach, all contained valuablelessons. In addition, several common themes emerged. A separate ITF Working Paper (2022b) sets out thethematic analysis.
This case study contains four parts. First, it provides context for the specific intervention and the roadsafety problems it aimed to solve. Second, it outlines the interventions implemented to solve these
problems and the results. The analysis is structured according to the five key components of the Safe
System framework outlined in the main report (ITF, 2022a), namely:
1. Establish robust institutional governance. Permanent institutions are required to organise
government intervention covering research, funding, legislation, regulation and licencing and tomaintain a focus on delivering improved road safety as a matter of national priority.
2. Share responsibility. Those who design, build, manage and use roads and vehicles and provide
post-crash care have a shared responsibility to prevent crashes resulting in serious injury or death.
3. Strengthen all pillars. When all road-safety pillars are stronger, their effects are multiplied; if one
part of the system fails, road users are still protected.
4. Prevent exposure to large forces. The human body has a limited physical ability to tolerate crashforces before harm occurs; the system should prevent those limits from being exceeded.
5. Support safe road-user behaviour. While road-user errors can lead to serious harm, the Safe
System focuses on roads and vehicles designed for safe interaction with road users. It supports
humans not to make mistakes and tune their tasks as much as possible to their competencies.
Third, the case study identifies lessons from the project, again structured according to the five key
components of the Safe System framework. Fourth, it offers conclusions.
Access the full set of case studies on the ITF website: https://www.itf-oecd.org/safe-system-in-action.

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Context
The New Car Assessment Program for South East Asian Countries (ASEAN NCAP) aims to improve motor
vehicle safety standards, build a market for safer vehicles and raise consumer awareness. Several popular
car manufacturers have worked with ASEAN NCAP to ensure they meet all requirements by including
important and improved vehicle-safety features in their soon-to-be-released models.
Road-safety themes: Fleet safety, Safety performance indicators
The Southeast Asia region comprises countries with varying population numbers, road safety conditions,socio-economic levels, vehicle safety regulations and vehicle fleet mixes. With a combined population ofover 630 million, the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) haveseen passenger vehicle sales soar in recent years.
Despite several ASEAN member countries emerging as the largest automobile manufacturers in the region,
vehicle safety regulations in these countries are neither on par with those in high-income nations nor meetthe minimum United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) safety requirements (see Table1). The ASEAN New Car Assessment Programmes aims to achieve improvements in the safety ratings ofvehicles through market demand (which also drives improved safety regulations). 1
Table 1. Vehicle standards by country in South East Asia
Country

Seatbelts

Seat-belt
anchorages

FrontalimpactSide
impactElectronicstability
controlPedestrian
protection

Child
seats

Motorcycle
anti-lockbrakingsystemBrunei

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Cambodia

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Indonesia

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Lao People’s
Democratic
Republic

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Malaysia

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Myanmar

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Philippines

No

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

No

Singapore

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Thailand

Yes

Yes

No

No

No*

No

No

Yes

Viet Nam

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Notes: * Thailand launched an ECO CAR program with tax incentives for cars with electric stability control but thisis not mandatory for all cars.
Source: WHO (2018) and other sources.

1

Visit the ASEAN NCAP homepage: http://aseancap.org.
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The ASEAN NCAP was established in December 2011 through a joint effort by Global New Car Assessment
Program (Global NCAP) and Malaysia’s Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS). Its primary objectives
are to improve motor vehicle safety standards, build a market for safer vehicles and raise consumerawareness. Since its launch, ASEAN NCAP has carried out a number of crash tests on new cars entering theSoutheast Asian region to ensure safe design standards in crashworthiness and crash compatibility forvarious brands and models before awarding them with the appropriate safety star rating. In the past 10
years, ASEAN NCAP has tested cars which cover almost 90% of the passenger cars sold in the Southeast
Asian market. More than 100 ratings have been produced, and three road maps have been introduced
since ASEAN NCAP was first launched (Khairil Anwar et al., 2019).
The first roadmap from 2012–2016 included two domains of assessment for vehicle occupants: the Adult
Occupant Protection (AOP) and Child Occupant Protection (COP) domains. The second roadmap for 2017–2020 saw the addition of a third domain, Safety Assist Technologies (SATs). In doing so, it sought to ensure
a car would be able to avoid a collision with other vehicles, especially motorcycles. This is because
motorcyclists or motorized two-three wheelers represented 43% of deaths on Southeast Asian roads(WHO, 2018). Therefore, ASEAN NCAP was determined to reduce the number of deaths involving
motorcyclists by rewarding significant points to vehicle models featuring technologies to avoid collision
with other road users.
ASEAN NCAP has continued this assessment in its third and current roadmap for 2021–2025, with theaddition of a fourth domain of assessment: Motorcyclist Safety (MS). This domain concerns the provisionof protection to vehicle occupants through technologies that could mitigate injuries and avoid collisions
with motorcyclists and other vulnerable road users.
Due to ASEAN NCAP’s efforts, the safety aspects of passenger vehicles in Southeast Asia have seen
tremendous improvements compared to the past decades. For instance, in 2008, a certain passenger car
model was fitted with a single airbag. Today, the same model is sold in ASEAN countries with seven airbags
and electronic stability control (Khairil Anwar, 2018). In addition to passenger car occupants, ASEAN NCAP
is concerned with the safety of vulnerable road users, especially motorcyclists. Therefore, most newmodels offered to potential car buyers in Southeast Asia are now equipped with blind-spot technology(BST) to reduce the risk of collision with motorcyclists (ASEAN NCAP, 2018).
Once ASEAN NCAP had successfully performed and released the results of the first three phases (Phases
I–III) of assessment, it managed to bring more vehicle manufacturers or original equipment manufacturers(OEMs) on board to voluntarily participate in the vehicle assessment programme and provide consumers
with pertinent knowledge in their decision-making when purchasing a vehicle.
As of August 2021, close to 90% of vehicles that ASEAN NCAP assessed had achieved a rating of 4-Stars orabove. To date, ASEAN NCAP had tested 28 brands, including all Japanese brands and 18 of the top 20
ASEAN brands (with the exception of Mercedes and Hino). ASEAN NCAP has successfully demonstrated
the effectiveness of a consumer information programme in encouraging the acceleration of vehicle safety
in a region.

Funding, actors and leadership
Through the Global NCAP, MIROS and ASEAN NCAP were able to receive funding from internationalorganisations including the FIA Foundation, the Global Road Safety Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the

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Towards Zero Foundation and many others. ASEAN NCAP also engaged with the stakeholders and partners
represented in its steering and technical committees.
For the Steering Committee, ASEAN NCAP partnered with automobile associations including theAutomobile Association of Malaysia (AAM), Automobile Association of Singapore (AAS), Automobile
Association Philippines (AAP), Automobile Association of Cambodia (AAC) and the Royal Automobile
Association of Thailand (RAAT).
For the Technical Committee members, ASEAN NCAP sought collaboration with vehicle safety experts fromthe Sirindhorn International Thai-German Graduate School of Engineering (TGGS), Bandung Institute ofTechnology (ITB), Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

Interventions and results
Establish robust institutional governance
ASEAN NCAP was formed as part of Activity 2 of the Safer Vehicle Pillar under the UN Decade of Action forRoad Safety 2011-2020. The formation of MIROS in 2007 as an agency under the Malaysian Ministry ofTransport (MOT) enabled it to push for improved safety performance of vehicles, and obtain support fromthe government to fund its initial effort to build a crash laboratory － the first in Southeast Asia.
The MOT has been strongly supportive of ASEAN NCAP’s work, particularly in promoting events such as“Stop the Crash ASEAN” in 2016, where the Malaysian Government announced the mandatory installationof electronic stability control (ESC) in new cars in Malaysia, beginning in June 2018. The Government also
supported ASEAN NCAP through the launch of the ASEAN NCAP Labelling Guideline in February 2019. The
guideline is currently in the process of being legislated under the Trade Description Act of the Ministry ofDomestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. The label will provide information to consumers about the safety
performance of a vehicle so that they can make informed decisions on the best model in terms of its safety.
In addition, vehicle manufacturers cannot easily claim that the cars they are selling have achieved a certain
star rating from another NCAP programme.
In addition, the MOT developed the National Transport Policy 2019-2030, which included a strategy(Strategy 3.2, under Policy Thrust 3) to adopt a Safe System approach towards safer road users,
infrastructure and vehicles. Under this strategy, two of the main actions were to: (a) improve safety andsecurity features of vehicles to enhance driver experience; and (b) introduce a safety star rating systemfor commercial vehicles, as well as new and used vehicles.

Share responsibility
Being a consumer-driven initiative, ASEAN NCAP shares its responsibility to avoid blaming road users as
the cause of road crashes with other key stakeholders in the field including OEMs, national governments
and the media.

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Through its programme, ASEAN NCAP has been able to build a positive relationship with OEMs in theautomotive industry. Thus far, the OEMs have been very positive in ensuring their vehicle models adhere
to the ASEAN NCAP assessment protocol. Other than targeting to achieve the best star rating, OEMs havealso been keen to offer the best safety protection to consumers without increasing vehicle prices.
In addition to the introduction of the labelling programme, the ASEAN NCAP safety ratings convinced the
Malaysian Government to introduce a regulation regarding suitable car models to be used as e-hailing
vehicles or taxis. The government announced that e-hailing cars must reach a minimum 3-Star ASEAN
NCAP rating as one the requirements for operators to renew their e-hailing or taxi licenses. This has acted
as a push factor for OEMs to have their car models assessed by ASEAN NCAP.

Strengthen all parts
The safety of a vehicle can be a function of the vehicle safety regulations implemented by a country. While
the UN World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations provides a legal framework for a range ofvehicle safety standards for UN member states to adopt voluntarily, many countries do not. In Southeast
Asia, some examples of legislation that has been implemented include regulations on the protection ofoccupants in the event of frontal collision, and regulations for seat belts and child seats (see Table 1). The
most anticipated development was the implementation of Regulation No. 140 for ESC in passenger carsby the Malaysian Government in 2018.
Due to the low adoption of vehicle safety regulations in Southeast Asia (see Table 1), it is important toincrease consumer information and demand for safer vehicles, in parallel to regulatory action.
ASEAN NCAP assists vehicle buyers to make safer purchasing decisions by providing them withindependent safety advice. This, in turn, creates demand and encourages manufacturers to produce safer
vehicles and plays a vital role in encouraging manufacturers to voluntarily fit safety technologies in advanceof any regulatory mandate and thereby produce safer vehicles.
With this regulatory push and demand pull strategy, close to 90% of vehicles that ASEAN NCAP assessed
have achieved a rating of 4-Star and above and greatly increased the safety of vehicles in the region.

Prevent exposure to large forces
In a safe road system, vehicles should either be able to effectively prevent a crash from occurring (crash
avoidance) or be able to protect the occupants and other road users from serious harm if a crash was tooccur (crash protection). The ASEAN NCAP assessment protocol focuses on both aspects.
With more vehicle safety technologies available on the market, ASEAN NCAP has revamped its latest
assessment protocol for 2021-2025 to include four assessment domains: AOP, COP, SAT and MS. Under
this new protocol, ASEAN NCAP has weighted SAT under a specific domain that assesses the effectivenessof such technologies to avoid collision with other vehicles. A new assessment domain is created under thisnew protocol dedicated to assess the safety performance of a vehicle in preventing collisions withmotorcyclists or vulnerable road users.
In addition to assessing the effectiveness of BST, ASEAN NCAP gives bonus points to models that can offer
advanced motorcyclist safety technology that helps reduce the possibility of a collision between the car
and motorcycle. Starting in 2021, ASEAN NCAP has raised its assessment level of vehicles by including
motorcycle- and pedestrian-related assessments to represent the most vulnerable road user groups in the

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Southeast Asia region (Khairil Anwar, 2019). These assessments are included under the Motorcyclist Safety
pillar of the new protocol, whereby car models will score points if they are fitted with technologies that
could prevent collisions with such road users.

Lessons
Actions under Malaysia’s National Transport Policy showed that the government was serious about
ensuring improved vehicle safety in Malaysia. One such action was through the star rating programme thatMIROS had carried out via ASEAN NCAP.
In having its assessment results disseminated to the masses, ASEAN NCAP received strong support fromthe media across Southeast Asian countries, particularly in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and thePhilippines. With the publicity provided by the media, information regarding ASEAN NCAP safety ratings
was more easily conveyed to consumers.
It was recognized by ASEAN NCAP that English, the language in which the results were published, was noteasily understood by the general ASEAN population, meaning that information did not reach a larger
audience. To address this limitation, a compilation of ASEAN NCAP results in the mother-tongue languagesof some of the ASEAN countries was developed. Thus far, ASEAN NCAP has published the compilation inthree languages: Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese. Various parties including government and nongovernment agencies will be able to share the information provided by ASEAN NCAP in their respective
languages through the use of traditional and new media technologies.

Conclusions
Vehicles are a vital element of the Safe System, providing passive safety technologies which reduce crashforces and active safety technologies which can avoid a crash.
Even in the absence of strong regulation of vehicle safety standards, the ASEAN NCAP has been able to use
consumer information by publishing safety ratings, promoting these to the community (in multiple
languages) and advocating to governments, vehicle and equipment manufacturers. As a consequence,
rated vehicle safety has improved, and government regulation is being improved. This has been madepossible through the efforts of Global NCAP and MIROS with funding support from many sources.
Addressing data-driven local issues adds clear value. In ASEAN countries, motorcyclists and othervulnerable road users comprise the majority of deaths, and thus ASEAN NCAP has increased its focus on
these road user groups.

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References

ASEAN NCAP (2018), ASEAN NCAP Roadmap 2021-2025, Malaysia Institute of Road Safety Research,
Kajang, http://www.aseancap.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ASEAN-NCAP-ROADMAP-20212025.pdf.
ITF (2022a), The Safe System Approach in Action, Research Report, OECD Publishing, Paris,
https://www.itf-oecd.org/safe-system-in-action.
ITF (2022b), “Safe System Implementation in Practice”, ITF Working Paper, available on request.
Khairil Anwar, A.K. (2018), Reach For The Stars: The ASEAN NCAP Story, Society of Automobile Engineers,
Malaysia.
Khairil Anwar, A.K. (2019), Beyond ASEAN NCAP: An Overview of ASEAN NCAP Assessment Beyond Crash
Testing, Society of Automobile Engineers, Malaysia.
Khairil Anwar, A.K. et al. (2019), “ASEAN NCAP’s success and challenges in promoting safer vehicles in the
ESCAP region”, Transport and Communications Bulletin for Asia and the Pacific, 89,
https://www.unescap.org/publications/transport-and-communications-bulletin-asia-and-pacific-no-89improving-road-safety.
WHO (2018), Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018, World Health Organization, Geneva,
www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241565684.

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The Safe System Approach in Action
The New Car Assessment Program forSoutheast Asian Countries
This case study discusses the New Car Assessment Program forSoutheast Asian Countries, established in 2011 with the aim of
improving motor vehicle safety standards in the region.
The case study is part of a package of materials accompanying the final
report of a joint International Transport Forum–World Bank Working
Group, entitled The Safe System Approach in Action.
The Safe System approach to road safety takes as its starting point the
ethical position that there is no acceptable level of road deaths andserious injuries. The report proposes a framework for designing,
implementing and assessing projects with a Safe System focus.
The report also draws on lessons from real-world case studies to offer
guidance on implementing Safe System interventions. While not every
case study was a perfect example of the Safe System approach, allcontain valuable lessons for policy makers and road-safety actors.