The Renault Zoe, one of Europe’s most popular electric cars, has been given a zero-star safety rating in the new round of Euro NCAP crash tests.
The Zoe becomes just the third car in Euro NCAP’s history to record a zero-star rating, 20 years after the Renault Laguna became the first car to achieve a five-star verdict.
The Zoe previously held a five-star Euro NCAP rating but was entered into the tests following a substantial facelift last year which ushered in a bigger battery and extra power but also, a new seat-mounted side airbag that protects just the occupant’s thorax, rather than the head and thorax as it did previously.
This change represents “a degradation in occupant protection”, according to Euro NCAP, which reported that in the side-pole-impact test, the “driver’s head directly impacted the intruding pole and head injury values indicated poor protection of this part of the body”.
The supermini’s performance in the frontal offset crash test was also “poor”, with Euro NCAP citing weak protection for the driver’s chest area and the necks of children in the back seats specifically.
The Zoe is also said to lack active safety technology “commonly fitted as standard”, such as lane-departure warning and standard-fit automatic emergency braking (AEB), which vehicle safety research firm Thatcham says can reduce “front-to-rear crashes with injuries by 56%”. Therefore it achieved a rating of just 14% in the Safety Assist category, some 61% lower than the 2021 average.
