Nissan Australia is asking the Australian Government to help speed up the process of bringing new vehicles to market as strict new emissions regulations come into effect in 2025.
New vice president and managing director of Nissan Oceania, Andrew Humberstone, told the media that the Japanese brand is working with local authorities on ways to speed up the compliance process required by manufacturers. production must go through before bringing the vehicle to market.
“Our request to the Australian Government is that, given the change in the actual timeline for NVES, what we are asking the government to do is support all OEMs by reviewing the type approval vehicle.” [process]”, Mr. Humberstone said.
“This took about 20 months [currently]when we are deemed to have ready-to-ship products that can meet your deadlines if type approval allows us to bring these products forward.”
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Nissan Ariya
Mr Humberstone noted that using existing specifications from major markets such as the UK and Japan rather than developing bespoke specifications based on the strict Australian Design Rules (ADR) would not making vehicles ‘unsafe’, as our safety standards are often assessed against Euro NCAP performance – which is linked to ANCAP in the criteria.
According to Nissan’s local boss, a change like this could reduce the timeframe needed for type approval from 20 months to just six.
Car expert received an additional statement from a Nissan spokesperson clarifying one of the specific areas in this requirement: the requirement for optional tether points in the middle rear seat.
“Direct acceptance of Type Approval from major markets will make the middle tie point optional. This will allow OEMs to quickly bring overseas-spec vehicles to market or offer center tethers in segments where customers want to place three child seats in the 2nd row, ” the statement read.
“It is important that there is no compromise on safety. Traffic laws prohibit the installation of a child seat with a top tether where the seat does not actually have a tether.”
The cost of designing these Australia-specific solutions can be prohibitive for manufacturers due to the relatively small local sales compared to major global markets such as Europe, UK and North America.
The victim of this particular example of top-tether is Honda HR-V. This small crossover is strictly a four-seater in Australia, as the lack of a center strap prevents the global specification from complying with Australian standards for five-seater vehicles.
The ADR requires any second-row seat with a seat belt to also have a top tether point for a child seat. Apparently, Honda has decided not to pay the expense of designing a top tether for the middle rear seat on Australian models.
Meanwhile, the same vehicle in the UK and Japan has a fifth seat and a seatbelt because the top tether point is not required there.
Looking at Nissan’s international portfolio, Ariya The electric SUV as well as the Note and Aura e-Power hatchbacks do not have a rear center strap in Japan, which will contribute to the delay in the former SUV’s rollout in Australia.
Nissan’s new local boss isn’t shy about pointing out exactly which products from the global portfolio are being introduced locally, but reaffirms the company’s “absolute, full commitment” to the Australian market as well. as signaling a “transformation” over the next 5-10 years for the company Down Under.
Although Mr. Humberstone avoided being specific about what the coming years will look like, he noted that Nissan has “a very clear plan for its electrification strategy and it will be market-specific.”
“From our perspective, we are arguably more ready than many other OEMs [for NVES]given our position in Europe and the global scale of our electrification strategy – I think we are in a very good position,” Mr Humberstone continued.
“All we are asking is if you speed up the enactment of the law, can you speed up the process of allowing cars to be brought in? And we will get along.”
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THAN: Everything Nissan
