The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) has added three model year 2023 electric cars to its Top Safety Pick+ award list: Genesis Electrified GV70, Hyundai Ioniq 6, and Lexus RZ 450e.
The IIHS examines a vehicle’s crashworthiness, which entails how well it protects occupants in a crash, and avoidance and mitigation, which highlights the contribution of safety technologies in minimizing the impact of a collision.
Cars must earn good ratings in the driver-side small overlap, passenger-side small overlap, original moderate overlap, and updated side tests to earn the Top Safety Pick+ laurel, said IIHS.
In addition to the collision test scores, there’s also an emphasis on the quality of headlights, and the effectiveness of a frontal crash prevention system, in both day and night lighting conditions, where pedestrians are involved. The latter seems to be an addition to IIHS’ 2023 safety criteria, which have been updated from the 2022 rules.
The Electrified GV70 scored “advanced ratings” in the vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash tests, while the Ioniq 6 and the Lexux RZ earned “superior ratings” in the same test. The Electrified GV70 also appears to have the better headlights among the three, as per IIHS.
Remember that the Electrified GV70 doesn’t ride on the same platform as the GV60 and the Ioniq 6, which ride on the Electric-Global Modular Architecture (E-GMP). It continues to ride on a version of the architecture underpinning the gas-powered GV70, which also holds an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award.
All three EVs scored top ratings in the driver-side small overlap front test. The dummy’s position appeared to be well maintained in relation to the door frame, steering wheel, and instrument panel after the crash test, according to IIHS.
“All three of these vehicles have standard front crash prevention systems designed to protect pedestrians both during the day and at night when most fatal pedestrian crashes happen,” IIHS president David Harkey said in a press release. He added that “making sure safety continues to be a priority in alternatively powered vehicles is critical if we are going to achieve the vision of zero traffic fatalities.”
Other MY2023 EVs to win IIHS’ topmost safety award include the Audi Q4 E-Tron, Q8 E-Tron, Volkswagen ID.4, Subaru Solterra, Volvo XC40 Recharge, and Rivian R1S and R1T.
