At the 2001 ESV-Conference the EEVC working group on compatibility (WG 15) reported the first phase of the research work to investigate the major factors influencing compatibility between passenger cars. Following this, WG15 performed an interim study, which was partly subventioned by the European Commission, the results of which are reported in this paper. In the next phase of work, it is intended to complete the development of a suite of test procedures and associated performance criteria to assess the compatibility of passenger cars in frontal impacts

The main areas of work for the interim study were:​

• in depth accident data analysis
• the development of methods to assess the potential benefit of improved compatibility
• crash testing.

The accident analysis identified the major compatibility problems to be poor structural interaction, stiffness mismatching and compartment strength. Different methods to assess the potential benefit of improved compatibility were applied to in depth accident data. Full scale crash testing including a car to car test was performed to help develop the following candidate compatibility test procedures:​

• a full width wall test with a deformable aluminium honeycomb face and a high resolution load cell wall
• an offset barrier test with the EEVC barrier face and a high resolution load cell wall
• an offset barrier test with the progressively deformable barrier (PDB) face.

The results of the interim study will be presented in detail and the proposed methodology of the next phase to complete the development of a suite of test procedures for the assessment of car to car compatibility in frontal impacts will be outlined.