Renault Zoe did not win a single star in the latest edition of the Euro NCAP crash tests. The consequences of the dire result are already here.
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For years, Renault has built a reputation as a manufacturer of super-safe cars. After all, its second-generation Laguna was the first car to win the full number of five stars in the 2001 Euro NCAP crash tests. But that reputation has now gotten a serious rift, with Zoe’s electric hatchback not receiving a single star in the latest edition of Euro NCAP.
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The reasons for this ominous result are actually two, the absence in crash tests of the monitored electronic assistants in the basic equipment and the weak protection of the crew. In the event of a frontal impact, the structure of the dashboard proved to be dangerous, in the event of a side impact on the pillar, Zoe was damaged by the use of less advanced airbags protecting only the chest. The resulting evaluation was even worse the previous generation of Zoe, using the same technical basis, received the full number of five stars in 2013. It doesn’t matter that the crash test methodology Euro NCAP at the time it was different and in some respects less strict.
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In fact, it is no wonder that the carmaker reacts shortly after the publication of the result. German magazine Auto, Motor und Sport, referring to Renault sources, informs that Zoe will experience the function of automatic braking with pedestrian recognition in standard equipment in response to the Euro NCAP crash test. It will be equipped as standard with all pieces of Zoe, manufactured since March 2022. Although the system is offered by Zoe today, but only for higher levels of equipment, and one for an additional fee. At a time when such a system is being evaluated by today’s Euro NCAP tests, its absence in the basic equipment proved to be a big mistake.
However, Euro NCAP also criticized in its evaluation the replacement of the side airbags protecting the head and chest of the crew with simpler side airbags protecting only the chest, which took place as part of Zoe’s intergenerational transformation. It was this that proved to be risky in a side impact on a pole, during which the manikin’s head hit the side window, which would lead to serious injury in a real accident.
But Renault does not agree with this court. He also emphasizes that the simplification of airbags has no reason in its lower price, as is blamed on it – it is said that this will save only some two to three euros per car (approximately 50-75 CZK).
According to Auto, Motor und Sport, the carmaker argues that internal research for the Laboratory of Injuries, Biomechanics and Human Behavior in cooperation with the Stellantis Group showed that none of the 300,000 Zoe specimens registered by this laboratory had an accident simulated according to the Euro NCAP methodology. That is, in such a style it would hit a pillar or a tree.
On the contrary, internal crash tests have shown that the existing airbag protects the head and chest has a negative effect on safety, in a certain type of accident, due to the distribution of air in such an inflatable bag. According to Renault, this was the real reason for using the second-generation airbags in the second-generation Zoe, which the management now certainly regrets given the results of the Euro NCAP tests.
According to the carmaker, a possible change would be too costly to pay off financially for this car. For example, the use of a separate side and head airbag would have to fundamentally change the structure of the body, which would not be financially viable. After all, we are talking about a car whose technical basis has been the same since 2013, as the second generation of Zoe, introduced in 2019, is built on the foundations of its predecessor and primarily changed design and equipment. In addition, a successor is already emerging, in 2024, Zoe is to replace the modern Renault 5 with electric drive.
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