Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website Renault Laguna’s Legacy Ruined as ZOE and Spring Debase Electric Car Safety
december 09, 2021 - EuroNCAP

Renault Laguna’s Legacy Ruined as ZOE and Spring Debase Electric Car Safety

Euro NCAP reveals its final #safety ratings of 2021, covering the range from the best to the worst that the car industry has to offer across vehicle categories. Among 11 new models tested, seven achieved a top five-star rating, including the BMW iX, the Genesis' G70 and GV70, the Mercedes-EQ EQS, the Nissan Qashqai, the Škoda Fabia and the Volkswagen Caddy. The electric FIAT 500e and MG's Marvel R also did well and earned 4 stars each. However, the year ends on a downer as Dacia Spring and Renault's facelifted electric ZOE qualified for only one star and zero stars respectively, performing even worse than expected.

The 5-star winners in this batch range from affordable supermini and small MPV to high-end executive electric cars. Despite having different powertrains and price tickets, all five-star cars performed very well overall in terms of crash protection and crash avoidance. There are stand-out performances from the new Nissan Qashqai in the area of #safety assist and the Mercedes-EQS for adult and child occupant protection. FIAT's electric supermini, the 500e, and the all-new MG Marvel R, also both put in strong performances and achieved commendable four-star ratings.

Michiel van Ratingen Secretary General of #euroncap, says: "Bravo to these manufacturers for giving consumers the levels of #safety they have come to expect. These results once more make clear that #safety is all about good engineering and less about the type of powertrain or price per se."

As consumers are nudged from all sides to switch to battery electric cars, it is no surprise that some car manufactures are launching more affordable products on the market that can appeal to a wider audience. Renault has been amongst the first to successfully capture the market with the popular ZOE launched in 2013. The "new" ZOE, a facelift introduced in 2020, received several battery improvements but no added #safety. On the contrary, the seat-mounted side airbag which previously protected head and thorax has been replaced by a less effective thorax-only airbag, representing a degradation in occupant protection. The new ZOE offers poor protection in crashes overall, poor vulnerable road user protection and lacks meaningful crash avoidance technology, disqualifying it for any stars.

Further information in the press release to download

You might be interested in

january 11, 2023
november 23, 2022
november 16, 2022

Today, Euro NCAP announces the winners from 2022, the #safety organisation’s busiest-ever year. These are the cars that achieved t...

In 2022, #euroncap is delighted to officially welcome the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) as a member, further wideni...

Today, Euro NCAP’s releases the results for its largest group of cars this year and all, but one of the sixteen cars tested achiev...