The safest electric cars on sale

When making the jump to EV, it’s easy to get caught up in how many miles of range it’ll deliver, its charging capability, how much space the boot has and how quickly it’ll accelerate.

There’s one vital thing that may slip under the radar — safety. Here’s our pick of the safest EVs that walked away with a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating. 

Renault Megane E-Tech

This small family hatchback, that’s been around since 1996, has been returning with good marks from the vigorous safety testing facility on nearly every occasion.  The new E-Tech walked away with an 85 percent adult occupant rating and 88 percent child occupant rating, whilst it also scored 79 percent on the safety assist test. It has Level 2 autonomy and comes with adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist and automatic emergency braking.

Genesis GV60

Quirky and loaded with safety tech, the GV60 secured an 89 percent adult occupancy rating, 87 percent child occupancy rating and an 88 percent safety assist score. Buyers can spec digital side mirrors, giving a live feed into the cabin. It’ll also monitor the space between you and the car in front, maintaining a safe distance, and after moving the indicator switch in the desired direction of travel, the GV60 will automatically move lanes. There’s also blind-spot warning, forward collision warning and an intelligent headlight system which automatically dims the headlights for oncoming traffic. 

BYD Atto 3

Chinese company BYD has caused a stir with its Atto 3. Not only is it affordable, but it also offers quality, a decent range and a five-star safety rating. It walked away from the Euro NCAP with a 91 percent adult safety rating and an 89 percent child occupancy rating. It has blind-spot detection, adaptive cruise control with land and traffic-sign assist, rear traffic warning for reversing and forward collision assist.  

Volkswagen ID Buzz

The ID range has been popular since the release of the ID.3 but the new Buzz gives those who have more to carry food for thought. It’s packed with first-rate safety systems as standard including seven airbags, autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, adaptive cruise control with lane assist and road sign recognition.

If you want lane change assist and blind spot detection, you’ll need to fork out extra for the Assistance Package Plus. It has a 92 percent adult occupant rating, an 87 percent child occupant rating and a 90 percent safety assist score. 

Kia EV6

It won the 2022 Car of the Year while the performance GT guise won World Performance Car 2023, yet Kia has packed it not only with powerful electric motors and long-range batteries, but also safety tech. It gets a plethora of standard features such as smart cruise control, a rear-view camera, forward collision assist, which scans for hazards and pedestrians, cars and cyclists, and there’s also lane-keep assist. Euro NCAP gave it 90 percent in adult safety and 86 percent in child safety. 

Volvo C40 Recharge

Sleek and stylish, the C40 Recharge is thought to be the most fashionable model in the lineup. And not only does it provide 240 miles of range, but it also received a 92 percent adult occupant rating and scored 89 percent in both child occupancy and safety assist. It has functions such as Pilot Assist, which helps the driver maintain a constant speed from the vehicle ahead, and lane-keep assist. 

Nissan Ariya

It was originally to hit the US market in 2021 but a chip shortage during the Covid pandemic halted this until 2022. As standard, it comes with intelligent lane intervention, lane-keep assist, corner and junction speed assist and traffic sign recognition with legal speed adjustment. It scored 86 percent on the adult occupancy test, 89 percent on the child occupancy test and 93 percent on the safety assist. 

Lucid Air

Lucid offers the Air with many features as standard although buyers with deeper pockets can opt for two other driver-assist packages. Standard features include a driver monitoring system, front and rear traffic cross protection, forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, rearview monitor and traffic sign recognition.

Spend an extra £1564 and you can have the Premium pack which gives all the standard features plus 3D surround view monitoring and blind spot display. An extra £7824 gets you the Pro pack which adds highway assist and intelligent driver monitoring. It scored 90 percent for adult occupancy and 91 percent for child occupancy.

Cupra Born

Achieving 93 percent in adult occupancy, 89 percent in child occupancy and 80 percent in safety assist, is the Cupra Born. As standard, it comes with adaptive cruise control with speed limiter, forward collision warning with automatic braking, lane assist, road sign recognition and a driver alert system. Pay £565 extra and you can have the Pilot pack which gives a top-view camera, rear traffic alert and intelligent park assist. 

Toyota bZ4X

The new bZ4X comes as standard with pre-collision warning which detects cars, cyclists and pedestrians, a reversing camera, junction detection, adaptive high-beam and safe exit assist. There aren’t any additional safety packages available, but it did receive an 88 percent adult occupancy rating, an 87 percent child rating and a 91 percent safety assist score.
 

Subaru Solterra

Entering the family SUV arena is the new Solterra which comes as standard with four-wheel drive, dynamic cruise control, pre-collision system, emergency steering, lane departure alert, lane tracing, blind-spot monitoring and road sign assist. There aren’t any additional safety features, but it sits high in the NCAP safety record by receiving a 91 percent safety assist score, an 88 percent adult occupancy rating and an 87 percent child rating. 

Ora Funky Cat

It may be small and quirky, but the Funky Cat boasts a five-star safety rating, and it was voted Euro NCAP’s best-in-class small family car. It’s loaded with standard safety tech such as blind spot detection, adaptive cruise control, 360-degree cameras, a reversing camera, rear traffic cross alert, high beam assist and lane-keep assist. It walked away, after vigorous testing, with a 92 percent adult rating, an 83 percent child rating and a 93 percent safety assist rating. 

Nio ET7

Chinese company Nio has entered the electric UK saloon market with its ET7, and that sits high in Euro NCAP’s safe list after receiving a 91 percent adult occupant rating, an 87 percent child occupant rating and a 95 percent safety assist rating. It features safety tech such as automatic emergency braking, driver fatigue system, lane departure warning, lane-keep assist and speed limit recognition. 

Hyundai Ioniq 6

The Ioniq 6 was voted World Car of the Year due to its performance and design and it scored 97 percent in adult occupancy, 87 percent in child occupancy and 90 percent in safety assist. There are two options, the Premium and Ultimate, the latter being £3500 more expensive. In the base Premium guise, you get highway drive assist level 2, speed limit assist, lane-keep assist, high beam assist and forward collision assist.

The Ultimate guise has all the features of the base car but also smart cruise control, parking collision avoidance and a 360-degree parking system.

Smart #1

With the BYD Atto 3 firmly in its sights, the #1 walked away with a better adult occupancy rating of 96 percent, while the child occupancy rating was 89 percent. It uses high-strength steel and hardened steel for its body structure while its batteries have automatic warning, passive heat insulation and active cooling features. It’s fitted with front collision warning, emergency braking, lane-keep assist and rear collision mitigation as standard. 

Mercedes EQE

The EQE boasts impressive standard tech across the entire range such as the Active Emergency Stop Assist function, junction assist, fatigue detection and emergency steering. Throughout the NCAP testing, it scored 95 percent in adult occupancy safety, 91 percent in child occupancy safety and 81 percent in safety assist. 

Tesla Model Y

Tesla has always performed well under Euro NCAP testing and the Model Y left with a 97 percent adult safety score, an 87 percent child safety score and a 98 percent safety assist score. As standard, you get lane assist, collision avoidance, speed assist and a cabin camera.

Part with £3400 more and you can have auto lane change, auto park and navigate on autopilot. Part with £6800 and you’ll receive everything the previous package has plus enhanced autopilot, traffic light and stop sign control and autosteer on city streets. 

Tesla Model S

In 2022, the Model S walked away with a best-in-class award for both executive and pure electric cars due to low rollover risk, as well as its design and performance. The Model S has a 360-degree camera system that has 250m of range. It also features navigate on autopilot, auto lane change and auto park with a summon feature arriving soon.

It received a 94 percent adult safety rating, a 91 percent child safety rating, and it scored 98 percent in the safety assist test. 

Nio EL7

The EL7, which scored five stars due to its hybrid bodyshell consisting of aluminium alloy and carbon fibre, comes with 33 sensors, seven 8MP cameras, an advanced driver monitoring system and ultrasonic sensors, which work with lane-keep assist and emergency braking. It scored 79 percent in the safety assist test, 85 percent for child occupancy and 93 percent for adult occupancy. 

Nio ET5

The last car on our list is another Nio thanks to its rollover resistance, ultrahigh strength bodyshell and intelligent driving functionality. In the event of an accident, the ET5 will alert the emergency services and it’ll apply the brakes after an impact to avoid a secondary collision. It also has lane support, fatigue detection and speed assistance. It scored 96 percent in adult occupancy, 85 percent in child occupancy and 81 percent in the safety assist test.