Volvo ESC call

NEW crash safety rating requirements are pushing Volvo Australia to fit electronic stability control to all its vehicles by 2009.

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program announced last month that cars without standard electronic stability control would not be eligible for five star scores from 2008.

That could have seen some prestige Volvo cars outscored by much cheaper models like the $20,990 Mitsubishi Lancer.

Despite having a reputation for leading the world on safety, the Australian arm of the Swedish car-maker does not currently fit electronic stability control as standard equipment for most C30, S40, V50, S60 and V70 models. It costs buyers between $2000 to $2190 to add ESC.

ESC is also optional on the current XC70, but will be standard on the next-generation model that arrives in Australia next February.

ESC is standard fit on all Volvos cars in Europe and most other regions.

The president of Volvo Cars Overseas Company, Peter Cornelis, told GoAuto that Australia was one of a few countries to not fit ESC across its range as standard because of cost issues.

“There are definitely markets in Africa and other areas where it is an option too, but there are not too many any more,” Mr Cornelis said.

Volvo Cars Australia general manager, Alan Desselss, said fitting ESC to all its cars was a ‘natural development’, but added that the fact ESC would be required to score five stars from next year was a major motivator. “ANCAP is an important one and it is important for us to get five stars, there is no doubt about it,” Mr Desselss said.

Left: S40 and XC90 (below) put under the Euro NCAP test.



“There is a push from road safety to make sure that we all do put it on all models and I think everyone is moving forward with that,” he said.

Mr Desselss said Volvo cars were already extremely safe without electronic stability control.

“This is a development that we believe we can now take and put onto the cars, but that is not in any way to suggest that our cars have been less safe.”

Mr Desselss said to not achieve five stars could have affected the some customers’ perception of Volvo cars.

“There will be an expectation that if you haven’t got five stars you are lesser than a car that has got five stars.”

He said the move to fit ESC was “probably not going to give people the perceived safety benefit, that all of a sudden, cars are going to become humungously safer that what they have been in the past,” he said.

“I think that is a myth.”

Most Volvo cars sold in Australia are fitted with traction control, which Volvo calls Stability and Traction Control.

This is not the same as Dynamic Stability and Traction Control, which is Volvo’s name for ESC.

GoAuto asked Mr Desselss if the inclusion of the word stability control in the name of its traction control system, which does not include stability control, could mislead buyers into thinking they were buying a car with ESC.

He said he did not think so and that the issue had not been previously raised with him.

While Volvo Australia is finally fitting ESC as standard in Australia largely due to ANCAP, Volvo in Sweden is pushing for changes to be made to the way Euro NCAP is conducted.

The revelation was made by Mr Cornelis, who visited Australia last week.

“We are actually lobbying NCAP to get a sixth star,” he said.

“We think there are too many five stars at the moment.”

Mr Cornelis told GoAuto that Volvo wanted Euro NCAP to include more life-like tests including a rear-impact crash test.

He said Volvo had reluctantly taken into account Euro NCAP requirements despite feeling that the program fell well short of its own crash test regime.

“Until a couple of years ago we were not interested in EuroNCAP five stars because it is not determining safety at all,” he said.

“Just three crashes and that’s it. We said we don’t want to optimise for three, because we have 53 different safety crashes we want to be best in. But in public opinion, if you don’t have five stars you cannot win that race, so sometimes you have to follow.”