China SAIC Motor (www.saicmotor.com) has selected TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. (www.trw.com) to supply occupant safety products for the Roewe 550 mid-sized sedan. The firms collaborated on the Roewe 750, which debuted in 2007.

TRW is supplying an occupant safety system (OSS) that includes driver, passenger and rear seat belts, driver and passenger airbags, side-impact curtain airbags, airbag electronic control units, and side-impact and rollover sensors. Driver and passenger airbags are manufactured by TRW’s joint-venture plants in Shanghai and Changchun, China. TRW's wholly-owned OSS facility in Shanghai produces the advanced electronics. The seat belt system on Roewe 550 is manufactured by TRW's joint venture with SAIC, Shanghai TRW Automotive Safety Systems Co., Ltd. (STASS).

The Roewe 550 features the RP2, TRW's second-generation rack-and-pinion seatbelt retractor. In anticipation of a crash, an electronic control unit activates the rack and pinion mechanism to tighten the seat belt, adjust the slack, and help protect the belted passenger. TRW also uses a load limiter in the Roewe 550 seat belt system to help better manage the occupant energy in a crash. SAIC brand director Liu Tao said the Roewe 500 OSS is designed to meet the 5-star crash test standards of the Euro NCAP.

Besides OSS products, TRW supplies Roewe 550 with a lane-departure warning sensor, ABS system, and an optional Electronic Stability Control System, all produced locally in China.