Carla Hoorweg, CEO of ANCAP Safety, has suggested that regulations on the importation of second-hand electric vehicles (EVs) into Australia via the specialist and enthusiast vehicle scheme need to be strengthened. This recommendation was made during a parliamentary inquiry hearing on the EV transition, where concerns were raised about the safety of EVs imported through this program.
The specialist and enthusiast vehicle scheme allows registered automotive workshops or companies to import certain types of used vehicles that are not available in the Australian car market. However, Hoorweg expressed concern that the scheme was not originally intended for EVs, which are considered mainstream vehicles rather than specialist or enthusiast vehicles.
One of the main issues raised by ANCAP Safety is that the scheme does not require the same level of safety testing and validation as new vehicles. Hoorweg highlighted the fact that ANCAP requires a minimum of four vehicles of the same make and model to be tested in order to produce a safety rating. Importing individual one-off vehicles makes it difficult to provide accurate safety information as the specifications of each vehicle cannot be validated.
Despite concerns about the safety of imported EVs, ANCAP’s testing has shown minimal differences in safety between EVs and conventional vehicles. Additional tests are conducted on EVs to examine the safety of their batteries, but so far, no issues have been found.
While ANCAP has not encountered any problems with EV batteries in their testing, they acknowledge that more data is needed on road crash incidents involving EVs and hybrids. As EVs become more prevalent in the market, ANCAP will continue to monitor their safety performance. Please rewrite this sentence.
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