Volvo gets superior rating
Volvo Car Group’s car safety has been highlighted with the U.S. insurance institute for highway safety (IIHS) introducing a new test programme that rates the performance of front crash prevention systems.
Both the Volvo S60 and XC60 get the highest possible rating of ‘Superior’ – and Volvo Cars’ city safety is the only standard fit low-speed crash prevention system in the test, which included 74 vehicles.
“We welcome that the major rating institutes have integrates collision avoiding technologies in their test programmes. This gives consumers a better insight into the advantages of auto brake systems. It will also drive implementation of these technologies through the vehicle fleet,” says Volvo senior adviser Thomas Broberg.
The IIHS’ new crash prevention evaluation will be incorporated into the institute’s 2014 Top Safety Pick+ rating. It includes two tests addressing front-to-rear crashes, one at 20km/h and the other at 40km/h. An additional point is given to vehicles with forward collision warning.
The Volvo S60 and XC60 equipped with city safety and collision warning with full auto brake and pedestrian detection are among seven models that get a ‘Superior’ rating in the new test.
The low-speed city safety system is standard in all new Volvo models on all markets. Most Volvo models are also available with state-of-the-art technologies that detect, warn and brake automatically for rear end of vehicles as well as moving pedestrians and cyclists in higher speeds.
“With City Safety as standard on all Volvo’s brought into New Zealand excluding XC90, we show how Volvo deals with frontal impact accident situations and also a much broader scope of real-life scenarios, including the pioneering pedestrian and cyclist detection,” says Volvo Cars New Zealand general manager Steve Kenchington.
So far, Volvo Cars has sold more than one million cars equipped with systems for automatic braking – and the company will continue this pioneering work in the near future by making detection systems work also in darkness for pedestrians and by introducing collision mitigation for animals.
The benefits of the ground-breaking City Safety technology has been documented in an earlier IIHS/HLDI (Highway Loss Data Institute) report stating a reduction of the collision claim frequency with up to 20 percent. Data from Swedish insurer If show similar figures with frontal collisions in car following situations being reduced with 23 percent.
“Since we introduced City Safety in 2009 on the XC60, The system has clearly shown itself to be a valuable feature for customers in New Zealand with panel damage greatly reduced in the one to four year old Volvo car park,” says Steve Kenchington.
The IIHS study of insurance claims involving a Volvo XC60 shows that City Safety reduces the costs for bodily injury liability with 33 percent – while property damage liability was lowered by 15 percent.
“Over the years, the risk of being injured in a Volvo has been reduced continuously and substantially. By introducing new preventive and protective systems, we keep moving towards our aim that by 2020 no one should be injured or killed in a new Volvo. Our long-term vision is that cars should not crash,” says Thomas Broberg.
READER REPLY 0131130