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What Van? Awards 2024: Safety Award – Ford Transit Courier
Date: Friday, December 22, 2023
The safety equipment fitted to vans has traditionally not matched that installed on passenger cars. The Ford Transit Courier has resoundingly bucked that trend by achieving the highest-ever Platinum rating from Euro NCAP, which we are delighted to introduce for 2024 as the new judge of the What Van? Safety Award.
The Courier Euro NCAP tested was the 1.0-litre GTDI Ecoboost petrol. It praised the standard-fit autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system, which includes forward collision warning and performed well in tests when reacting to other vehicles. Against slower moving and stationary objects, the AEB enabled the Courier to avoid a collision in almost all scenarios.
Tests found the system excelled in its ability to detect vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians. Euro NCAP awarded the Courier maximum points in all tests involving pedestrians, save for in reversing, where the van has no system fitted to detect people behind it. In its reaction to cyclists, the Courier achieved almost full marks.
The Courier’s lane keeping assist system gently corrects the vehicle’s path if it drifts out of lane and intervenes more aggressively in more critical situations, if the van is in danger of leaving the road or colliding with other vehicles. The system was found to be able to respond to a variety of markings, including solid or dashed lines and could even detect unmarked road edges. Ford offers a blind spot monitoring alert with the Courier as an option. The Courier features a camera combined with digital mapping to determine local speed limits and the information is presented to the driver via the dashboard and a speed limiter can be set manually or by the vehicle itself.
The Courier provides a seatbelt reminder for both the driver and passenger while a monitoring system uses steering wheel input to assess whether the driver is fatigued. If behaviour characteristics of tiredness is detected it advises the driver to take a rest.
Euro NCAP concluded that the Courier’s all-round safety performance was excellent and particularly praised the amount of safety kit available across all specification grades, most of which is included as standard equipment.
“With the same crash-avoidance technology as its passenger car counterparts, the Transit Courier easily meets Euro NCAP’s requirements for a Platinum rating,” said the crash test body. The Courier’s overall safety assist performance score was an impressive 93%.
Ford unveiled its E-Transit Courier at the Commercial Vehicle Show in April – the electric van is to follow its petrol and diesel siblings to market in 2024.
The Courier topped a shortlist of 10 vans that Euro NCAP said had made huge strides in improving safety. They have achieved a Platinum, Gold, or Silver rating under Euro NCAP’s strict and independent safety assessment. For the award, vans are considered and judged for their market availability, standard versus optional fit of safety systems and value for money, as well as class leading safety performance.
Euro NCAP secretary general Dr Michiel van Ratingen said: “Equipping vehicles in the commercial sector with modern safety solutions and the latest technological developments, is a vital part to the complicated jigsaw of reaching Vision Zero and zero casualties on European roads.”
Highly Commended: Fiat Professional Ducato
Euro NCAP awarded the Ducato a Gold rating and commended the performance of its AEB, particularly at low speeds. In tests where the collision target was braking, Euro NCAP said the van managed to avoid a collision even when the gap between itself and the target was small. The Ducato was also found to perform well in scenarios with vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians, including in tests conducted at the highest test speeds.
Euro NCAP also praised the Ducato for the efficiency of its lane keep assist function, its camera-based speed limit information system – which uses traffic sign recognition to identify local speed limits before imparting the information to the driver – and for the driver-set speed limiter.
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