Commercial vans are everywhere: in city centres, on motorways, and in residential streets. With the rise of e-commerce, logistics and delivery services, and infrastructure development, they are more present than ever. Ensuring that these vehicles are equipped with effective safety systems is essential not only for drivers but also for the people they share the road with. Although vans may not be involved in more crashes than passenger cars, their size and weight increase the severity of outcomes, particularly for other road users. Crashes involving vans are more likely to result in serious injuries or fatalities for pedestrians, cyclists, and occupants of lighter vehicles. Despite this, vans have for many years been more poorly equipped with the latest safety technologies than passenger cars.
Since 2021, Euro NCAP has been publishing dedicated safety ratings for light commercial vehicles, recognising the essential role vans play in transport, logistics, and local services. In 2025, Euro NCAP updated the programme to adopt the familiar 1- to 5-star rating system, aligning van assessments with other vehicle categories and offering clearer, more accessible safety information to consumers and fleet managers alike.
The 2025 ratings replace the previous medal-based system and are designed to reflect a van’s safety performance across three critical areas: Safe Driving, Crash Avoidance, and Post-Crash Safety.
For all vehicles, it is essential that the driver should be attentive and alert. Accordingly, part of the Safe Driving assessment is an evaluation of systems which can detect fatigue and/or distraction and respond accordingly. Fatigue detection, using indirect methods such as recognising steering inputs which characterise a tired driver, have been available on passenger cars for many years but, now, more advanced systems can detect eye position directly, to gauge whether or not the driver is focussed on the road ahead.
Crash avoidance technologies, such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and lane assistance, have become commonplace on passenger cars over the last decade or so. Those same technologies can also provide huge safety benefits to commercial vans, although their implementation in this sector has been much slower. Euro NCAP assesses the effectiveness of AEB at avoiding, or at least mitigating, impacts with other cars, with pedestrians and with cyclists. Reverse AEB systems, which provide protection to those behind the vehicle is also included in this part of the assessment. Lane assistance is assessed by testing how effective the van is at correcting a drift out of lane and in emergency situations, to prevent the vehicle leaving the road or colliding with other vehicles.
From 2026, Euro NCAP includes an assessment of the protection a van offers to its occupants, and to those with whom it may collide. Crash dummies, positioned in the driver and front passenger seat, reveals the protection offered in an offset frontal impact test, typical of the sort of accident that is common on European roads. Here, the fitment of effective restraint systems, such as seat belts and airbags is crucial. However, the test, which is performed against a deformable honeycomb barrier, can also be used to indicate how well the van interacts with the vehicle it has collided with: whether it offers a very aggressive front structure or one which is more compatible, allowing both vehicles to absorb crash energy effectively. The assessment of side impact protection is based on the fitment of safety equipment such as curtain airbags, and the effective coverage they provide.
Vans are high, heavy and flat-fronted, and often used around towns and cities, making them potentially dangerous for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. Tests on the front of the vehicle, using the same headform and legform impactors used for passenger cars, indicates the protection offered in these sorts of accidents.
Emergency services personnel who are first on the scene of a crash can be at risk if they are unaware of the location of high voltage batteries, fuel tanks, airbag inflators and seatbelt pre-tensioners. Their work can be hampered by locked vehicle doors and windows, and high-strength body structures. To assist with the safe rescue and extrication of occupants, vehicle manufacturers are encouraged to provide standardised vehicle information highlighting the location of potential rescue hazards in the form of a Rescue Guide. All available information is displayed in Euro NCAP’s Euro Rescue app for use by first responders. Points are awarded for eCall systems which recognise when a van is involved in a crash and notify first responders, and to post-crash braking – to stop the vehicle when it's involved in an initial crash where a driver may be incapacitated.
Euro NCAP publishes safety ratings primarily for commercial vans in the N1 category. These are vehicles designed for goods transportation with a gross vehicle weight less than 3.5 tonnes. Such vans will be familiar to most as the vehicles used by tradespersons and delivery companies. Also included in the N1 category are small panel vans, which often share their underpinnings with passenger-carrying equivalents. Larger vehicles – those in the N2 category – may be classified as vans or trucks, depending on their construction and intended use. Those classified as vans are tested by Euro NCAP according to the same commercial van protocols used to assess N1 vehicles.
A van may be chosen by Euro NCAP for assessment because it is a popular vehicle in Europe, with high sales, or a manufacturer may request an assessment to demonstrate its product’s safety performance. Either way, the van is tested in the same way. Up to 2025, vans were tested with optional equipment so the rating reflected the best result a consumer could expect. Care was needed to buy a vehicle with all options if the full safety performance was to be realised. From 2026, vans are tested with standard equipment only, so the rating will demonstrate the minimum level of performance across the model range. Options may be available which will further increase safety, but these are not included in the assessment and consequent rating.
Compared with passenger cars, there are relatively few commercial vans on sale in Europe and, in recent years, Euro NCAP has tested most of the most popular models and several which are new to the market. Partnerships are common between commercial vehicle manufacturers, and in some cases an assessment of one van will apply equally to another marketed under a different brand.
