ESP will be mandatory on all new cars in the EU from November 2011, the European Parliament has announced. Currently, just over 50 per cent of new cars sold in Europe are fitted with ESP.
ESP is proven to significantly reduce fatal accidents.
“ESP can prevent up to 80 percent of all skid-related accidents,” said Dr. Werner Struth, president of the Chassis Systems Control division at Bosch, where ESP systems are made. “After the seat belt, the system is therefore the most important safety technology in the car.”
The mandatory installation of ESP on all new cars should help to further reduce the number of people killed on the roads in the EU. In 2001, this figure was 50,000, but by 2006 that number had dropped to 29,500, partly thanks to the increasing fitment of ESP.
The move to make ESP compulsory is part of a package of EU-wide road safety measures.
These will include making lane departure warning systems and emergency brake assist compulsory on vehicles with a maximum weight of more than 3.5 tons and on passenger vehicles with more than eight seats by 2013.
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