The Renault Zoe received the worst of all possible marks in the Euro NCAP crash test.
London Setback for the French car manufacturer Renault: its popular Zoe e-car model received the worst rating from the European organization for vehicle safety Euro NCAP. The organization justified the zero-star rating on Wednesday with the fact that the side airbags were worse than those of previous models.
It was only the third time that Euro NCAP did not award any stars to a model. The Dacia Spring model, also from Renault, also did poorly. It only got one of five possible stars.
“Renault was once synonymous with safety,” said Euro-NCAP General Secretary Michiel van Ratingen. But these disappointing results now show how safety suffered when the group switched to e-cars. Renault announced that the Zoe was a safe vehicle that met all regulatory safety requirements.
The ratings from NCAP have no consequences for the approval, as the organization does not certify the vehicles. However, consumers often go by the reviews, and auto companies advertise heavily with good results.
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Renault’s Zoe model was the third most sold all-electric car in Europe from the beginning of the year to October, after the Model 3 from Tesla and the ID.3 from Volkswagen. Eleven vehicles were tested for safety by Euro NCAP in the last test round this year. A number of cars received five stars, including the e-car iX from BMW, the likewise electric EQS from Daimler, the Qashqai from Nissan and the Caddy from Volkswagen. Tesla cars weren’t there.
After the crash, the car is clearly damaged. From the testers’ point of view, the French car manufacturer is doing too little to protect occupants.
More: Tesla at the forefront, VW ID.3 is losing ground – the ten most popular electric cars in Germany