2 months ago
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Of all the electric cars tested by ANCAP, fewer have low-star ratings compared to petrol and diesel models, but the proportion of five-star cars is similar.
Electric Cars
Regardless of where you stand on electric vehicles (EVs), the inclusion of a high-capacity battery and high-voltage components presents a unique danger in the event of a collision.
EV Firesafe Australia states there have been six reported electric car battery fires locally, with none related to a spontaneous or charging event.
In fact, most (four out of the six) have been caused by an external fire, while one was caused by hitting road debris and the other by a collision.
According to Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) Chief Executive Officer Carla Hoorweg, the crash-test data between tailpipe emissions-free models and the all-electric cars are shaking out to be similar in terms of overall safety.
“What we’ve seen from the ones [EVs] that we’ve rated that have come into the market … around 85 per cent had hit five stars,” Hoorweg said.
“It’s not too different from the whole of the ratings.
“We usually see around 85 per cent of what we’ve tested have hit the five-star mark, so it’s not dissimilar.”
Across the list of current electric cars that have ANCAP ratings, only a handful of passenger car and SUV models fell short of the maximum safety rating – namely the BMW i4, Fiat 500e and Hyundai Kona Electric that notched four stars, and the Jeep Avenger that scored three stars in their respective test years.
With ANCAP’s remit also extending to New Zealand, all-electric versions of the Opel Mokka and Citroen C4 have also been awarded four-star scores.
This means out of the 57 current EV ANCAP scores, only six have fallen short of the maximum safety score, or around 10.5 per cent.
Of note, there are also 16 EVs with expired ratings, all of which had five-star scores barring the first mass-market EV to arriving in Australia, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV that had four stars.
Compare that to the current ratings for internal combustion engine (ICE) passenger cars and SUVs, which sees 18 out of the 117 tested models fall short of the maximum score – or about 15.4 per cent.
With EVs scoring higher proportionally to their ICE counterparts, that makes the former safer right?
Well, no, because it is important to note that EVs are generally newer than petrol- or diesel-powered models, which means they often having more advanced technologies despite being tested to the latest standard.
Price also plays a big part here too, or as Hoorweg puts it: “I would say there’s also probably a factor of play there where … how are you going to go from a sales perspective if you’re bringing a one-star EV into Australia – it’s an expensive product.”
Furthermore, ANCAP simply cannot test every single new model coming to market, which means as an overall indicator of safety, the data is inconclusive regarding which is safer.
What can be surmised however, is that from the models that have undergone ANCAP examination, so far it looks like electric cars have a higher proportion of five-star cars than models with ICE.
Electric Cars Guide
Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.
