C-NCAP. The C-NCAP () is a Chinese car safety assessment program. It is primarily modeled after safety standards established by Euro NCAP and is run by the China Automotive Technology and Research Center (). The C-NCAP was first run in 2006 and has been updated every three years since, with new revisions for 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2024.

Test protocol 
The C-NCAP consists of a series of safety tests, including real, simulated and virtual vehicle impact tests, static evaluation of vehicle design, and performance testing of vehicle active safety systems.

Vehicle impact tests 
The C-NCAP contains four mandatory and one optional crash tests that involve fully built production vehicles impacting barriers. 

The first is a full-width perpendicular frontal impact against a non-deformable solid barrier which the vehicle is towed into at , which is designed to simulate crashing a vehicle straight into a solid wall. This test specification is similar to NHTSA standards and is at slightly higher speed than the Euro NCAP. 

A 50% overlap frontal impact test against a wheeled deformable barrier platform, which is designed to simulate a head-on collision with another vehicle across a median line, where only the driver's side half of the vehicles' front contact. Both the test vehicle and  automobile-shaped four-wheeled barrier platform travel at  in opposite directions towards each other during the test; the deformable barrier is designed to simulate a vehicle's crumple zone. This test is identical to the one in the  Euro NCAP; in the US, the NHTSA lacks a similar test, while the IIHS uses static barriers for their partial overlap impact tests.

The side impact test against a wheeled deformable barrier platform is designed to simulate a broadside collision where a vehicle perpendicularly impacts the doors of the vehicle. The barrier platform, which again has a deformable barrier simulating a vehicle's crumple zone, now weighs  and impacts the vehicle at  and is centered  behind the front passenger seat R-point. This test is conducted at a similar speed to the Euro NCAP and American organizations, but the barrier platform is at least  heavier than all but the IIHS test protocol, which is  higher.

The side impact test against a stationary solid  diameter cylinder, designed to simulate a vehicle that loses control and slides into a roadside pole, such as a street lamp or utility pole. The vehicle is loaded onto a sled at a 75-degree angle to the direction of impact, and the cylinder is aligned with the test dummy's head; the sled then pulls the vehicle into the cylinder at . This test is comparable to the Euro NCAP and NHTSA protocols.

Battery impact test 
The bottom scraping test against a  diameter solid hemispherical barrier, which simulates a vehicle running over large objects. The test is only applied to NEVs (plug-in battery electric vehicles) with externally mounted underbody battery packs. The first test is done to test potentially vulnerable areas along the battery pack's front edge, such as cooling system and wiring outlets; if there are none, this test is skipped and only the second test is done. The spherical barrier is set so the top is  higher than the bottom of the battery pack and the vehicle is then aligned to center a vulnerable area, and then pulled over the barrier at . The second test involves mounting the battery pack and accessories onto a wheeled platform tilted upwards at a 3-degree angle, then pulling the platform over the barrier at , again aimed at vulnerable front edge locations. The tests are repeated for each potential weak spot on the battery pack.

After each test, the battery pack undergoes observation to ensure electrical isolation is maintained above 100Ω/V, battery electrolyte leakage is below  within 30 minutes, and no fires or explosions occur. After all impact tests are completed, the battery pack is submerged under  of water for 30 minutes, then removed from the water and observed for two hours. During this time, the battery temperature is monitored, and any fires or explosions lead to failure of the test.

Simulated tests 
The whiplash test is done by placing the seat on a sled in a similar orientation to which it was originally mounted in the vehicle, to allow for several repeatable tests simulating rear-end collisions. It involves accelerating the sled with a triangle-shaped acceleration waveform with a peak of 11G of acceleration over a 93-millisecond duration, resulting in a  speed increase. This test is similar to the Euro NCAP Medium Severity and IIHS tests, but they have a lower speed and peak acceleration of  and 10G, respectively. The Euro NCAP Low and High Severity tests have different waveform shapes and lower peak acceleration, despite the latter having a higher speed differential of .

Far-side occupant protection tests are used to ensure that the passenger on the opposite side of a side collision receives sufficient protection. This test can be conducted virtually in simulation software if certain conditions are met, including passing the side pole impact test without significant interior intrusion.

Virtual tests 
The out-of-position occupant protection test is conducted virtually on simulation software, and is only conducted on vehicles equipped with Auto Emergency Braking (AEB) systems. The test evaluates collision protection after the passenger has been displaced by heavy AEB-triggered deceleration shortly before an impact similar to the 50% overlap frontal test.

2024 revision 
Application of the 2024 revision of the C-NCAP tests started on July 1, 2024.

Changes compared to the 2021 revision include:

 Occupant protection
 100% front collision
 Speed increased from 50->55kmh
 2nd row child thorax assessment changed
 barrier side impact
 Test speed increased 50->60kmh and weight 1400->1700kg
 R point moved from previous 250mm? to 200mm, inline with EU
 Change of deformable honeycomb from AE-MDB to SC-MDB
 Previously excluded NEVs, now all vehicles
 side pole collision
 Was NEV only previously, now all vehicles
 virtual far-side occupant protection tests
 Whiplash test assessment method 'optimized'
 Active safety bonus points
 Child presence detection tests
 Performance assessment of pressure-retaining curtains
 New NEV bottom scraping test
 Virtual tests combining active and passive safety
 Vulnerable Road User (VRU) protection
 Pedestrian head and leg impact test
 Automatic Emergency Braking for VRUs
 New VRU-AEB test scenarios 
 Children and obstacles
 Crossroads
 Adjustments to existing scenarios
 Active Safety
 New scenarios for AEB car-to-car
 Crossroad
 Highway rear-end collisions
 AEB false positive
 Lane assistance
 New curve departure warning
 New Emergency Lane Keeping
 Adjustments to blind-spot monitoring
 New tests
 Door Open Warning
 Rear Cross Traffic Alert
 Driver Monitoring System
 Adaptive Driving Beam

See also 

 TNCAP (Taiwan NCAP)

References

New Car Assessment Programs
Consumer organizations in China