Mr John Bozella
President
International Organisation of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers
4 rue de Berri
75008 Paris
3rd December 2021
Dear Mr Bozella
Firstly may I wish you well with your recent appointment as President of OICA. I recently wrote to your predecessor Mr Fu Bingfeng (see letter dated 27th October) about the launch of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 and its related Global Plan. The Plan includes strong recommendations on vehicle safety as part of an inclusive ‘safe systems’ approach - see attached: Page 13, Box 3. Global NCAP warmly welcomes the new Decade and Plan. We hope that as OICA’s new President you share our support for this vitally important effort to halve road deaths and serious injuries by 2030.
In October 2019 OICA’s Manifesto for Global Road Safety was a welcome initiative from the automotive industry. However, as explained in our letter (dated 13th November 2019) to the then OICA President, Mr Christian Peugeot, we felt that the proposed lead times for regulatory action on key vehicle safety standards were far too long. For example, the Manifesto proposed 36 months for front and side impact and 60 months for electronic stability control. This timescale was very unambitious, following no more than existing market trends and fitment rates.
Two years later and with a new Decade of Action launched OICA’s Manifesto is now clearly outdated and I understand that your organisation’s Road Safety Ambassador, Mr Erik Jonnaert is no longer serving in this role. I would, therefore, respectfully suggest that OICA should revise the Manifesto and your proposed regulatory road map. We believe that OICA and the automotive industry should make a firm commitment to support the Global Plan, its vehicle safety recommendations, and the related Road Safety Performance Target for Vehicles (Number 5). This states that, “By 2030, 100% of new (defined as produced, sold or imported) and used vehicles meet high quality safety standards, such as the recommended priority UN Regulations, Global Technical Regulations, or equivalent recognized national performance requirements”.
In order to meet this target we would encourage OICA and the automotive industry to make a voluntary commitment to achieve universal compliance by the end of 2022 for all new vehicles with the most important UN safety standards. In our view this should include UN regulations for front and side impact, pedestrian protection, child restraints and electronic stability control*. Such a commitment would be a long overdue response to the proposal made by Mr Jean Todt, the UN Secretary General’s Envoy for Road Safety, for an industry self-commitment on minimum standards submitted to the 170th Meeting of the World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations in November 2016.
At the launch in 2019 of OICA’s Manifesto Mr Todt called on the manufacturers “to go further by anticipating as much as possible the implementation of these legislative obligations”. We whole heartedly agree and would urge OICA to respond positively to the Special Envoy’s advice which is just as relevant today as it was two years ago.
On 30th June-1st July next year the UN General Assembly will host a special High Level Meeting on Global Road Safety. A key theme of this important meeting will be multi-stakeholder engagement and mobilizing stronger action from the private sector. The High Level Meeting would, therefore, be an ideal opportunity for OICA to announce a revised and updated Manifesto including an ambitious voluntary commitment to meet the most important UN vehicle safety standards. There are a number of precedents for such an initiative. As you will be aware a notable example is the voluntary commitment on automatic emergency braking agreed in 2015 agreed between 20 automakers in the US and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Global NCAP, therefore, very much hopes that OICA will engage with the new UN Decade of Action for Road Safety and consider making a voluntary commitment ahead of next year’s High Level Meeting. What better way could there be for the automotive industry to demonstrate more ambition and stronger global leadership on vehicle safety?
Yours sincerely
David Ward
Executive President
* UN R14, R16, R94, R95, R127, R129, & R140 or equivalent GTRs.
YOUTUBE
