ANCAP has precipitated significant advancements in Australian and New Zealand occupant protection over the 10-year life. However, the number of serious and fatal injuries still occurring indicates that further improvements can be made in vehicle performance and assessment within an overall framework of improving road infrastructure and driving standards.

ANCAP remains a small program in world terms and benefits greatly from harmonization with EuroNCAP. A strategic review was carried out in 2002 to determine a further 10 year vision the program taking into account current market data, current and future funding and benefits of harmonization.

Being small also allows greater agility and ANCAP has identified a number of enhanced and new performance assessments that will ensure a continued and appropriate focus on injury reduction and ensure the relevance of information provided to the Australian and New Zealand consumer.

This paper sets out the relative merits of the proposals and the agreed forward strategy for maintaining ANCAP relevance over the next decade. The new direction includes replacement of the current side impact test with a pole side impact test, addition of an active safety assessment program and to seek additional funding.