Make 3 changes to prevent ‘everyday crash damage’, automotive researchers tell carmakers

“Everyday collisions” such as car park scrapes or low-speed shunts could be made more rare and less costly by making three key changes in vehicle design and repair, according to an automotive risk intelligence organisation.

Broad deployment of automatic emergency braking for close-range manoeuvring could reduce collision damage claims worldwide by up to 15% for example, said Thatcham Research this week.

The organisation called for change alongside representatives from 19 research institutes from 15 countries at the annual conference for RCAR, the international association of motor insurance research institutes, in Mexico City.

A central focus of the event was how closer cooperation between insurers and vehicle manufacturers could reduce both the frequency and cost of claims. The institutes’ research points to three clear opportunities, Thatcham said:

1. Building in repairability from the outset. “Connectivity, driver assistance systems and new propulsion technologies have made vehicles significantly more complex, and when damage occurs that complexity can lead to more extensive repairs and higher costs,” the organisation said. “RCAR’s institutes are calling for crash performance to be optimised and repairability considered systematically at an early stage of vehicle development. RCAR low-speed crash tests are now an established global standard for reducing damage in typical parking and rear-end collisions, and dedicated procedures have been developed to analyse and prevent underbody damage to high-voltage batteries in electric vehicles.”
2. Introducing more driver assistance systems. “Parking and manoeuvring damage continues to account for a substantial share of total claims. Broad deployment of automatic emergency braking for close-range manoeuvring (parking AEB) could reduce collision damage claims worldwide by up to 15%. Individual RCAR institutes have already demonstrated the impact of these systems using real-world claims data: Allianz Centre for Technology (Germany) found that 66% of reversing crashes during parking and manoeuvring could be prevented by emergency braking, while Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (USA) research found that claim rates for damage to the insured vehicle fell by 9%, and claims for damage to other vehicles by 29%, when parking AEB was fitted. RCAR is calling for wider fitment of these systems as standard.”
3. Repairing before replacing. “Increasing complexity raises the bar for repairs that are both technically sound and economically efficient, calling for transparent repair information, standardised procedures and highly skilled repairers. Wherever technically feasible, repair should take precedence over replacing parts, supported by repair-friendly vehicle design and the use of quality-assured recycled and aftermarket components.”

There are now more than 1.4 billion passenger cars on the road worldwide, and the World Health Organisation estimates that road traffic crashes cost about 3% of global GDP. “Vehicle damage and repair costs from everyday low-speed crashes are a major part of that picture, driven to a considerable extent by vehicle design and increasingly complex technologies,” the Thatcham announcement said.

In the UK, of the £2.9bn insurers paid out in motor claims in the first quarter of 2026, £1.9bn was for vehicle repairs, up 3% on the previous quarter. The average accidental damage claim rose to £3,699, up 8% on the previous quarter, according to the Association of British Insurers.

“Most drivers will never be involved in a high-speed crash, but almost all of us will at some point have a scrape in a car park, a nudge at a junction or a clip on a roundabout. Those everyday incidents account for a very large share of what insurers pay out, and how much each one costs depends to a great extent on how the vehicle was designed,” said Jonathan Hewett, chief executive of Thatcham Research.

“Safety testing rightly protects lives at high severity. RCAR’s work protects the affordability of motoring at the severity most of us actually experience.”

Dialogue between insurance researchers and carmakers is already bearing fruit, according to new data from Thatcham. A survey conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research found that 51% of UK-based vehicle manufacturers now report repairability as a greater focus than traditional customer priorities such as performance, comfort and styling.

That shift in priorities is beginning to show in vehicles, the Thatcham announcement said. The average ‘damageability’ score of new vehicles assessed in 2026 has improved compared with those assessed in 2025, falling from 66 to 62 out of 99 for electric vehicles and from 70 to 69 out of 99 for petrol and diesel vehicles, where a lower score indicates less damage sustained in a standardised low-speed impact.

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