Shockingly bad NCAP score for the Zoe
Discussion
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/renaul...
Such a dangerous car - surely this model needs to be pulled from sale and EV buyers should look elsewhere rather than buying this death trap.
Such a dangerous car - surely this model needs to be pulled from sale and EV buyers should look elsewhere rather than buying this death trap.
Aside from changing an air bag, which will obviously make the score worse how else has the car changed?
I understand the need to make the tests more stringent over time to a degree but it's getting a bit daft now, I also can't help there should be two scores, one for active safety (auto brake and such) and passive safety to make things a bit clearer.
I understand the need to make the tests more stringent over time to a degree but it's getting a bit daft now, I also can't help there should be two scores, one for active safety (auto brake and such) and passive safety to make things a bit clearer.
Welshbeef said:
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/renaul...
Such a dangerous car - surely this model needs to be pulled from sale and EV buyers should look elsewhere rather than buying this death trap.
Wow, you're in full-on drama queen mode today! Did you even read the article?! Such a dangerous car - surely this model needs to be pulled from sale and EV buyers should look elsewhere rather than buying this death trap.
Safety standards are increased continually. Apart from the air bag in the seats this car isn't any less safe than it was when launched. It lost out for having a lack of nannying tech and things like 'poor child neck protection in an offset frontal crash(?).
The previous model got 5 stars and now it gets none and yet its essentially the same car.
Om said:
Reading some of the quotes from Dacia and Renault in the article it suggests that the manufacturers are starting to push back against the ever more stringent NCAP regulations.
Also, anybody who uses the phrase ‘accidentology’ should be shot…
I think they should. In the past few years I hear more and more from drivers who are sick of nannying tech. One, last week, ditched his new LR Defender (£62K) and bought an old Discovery because he hated the lane assist, emergency braking and continual bings and bongs.Also, anybody who uses the phrase ‘accidentology’ should be shot…
Welshbeef said:
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/renaul...
Such a dangerous car - surely this model needs to be pulled from sale and EV buyers should look elsewhere rather than buying this death trap.
Such a dangerous car - surely this model needs to be pulled from sale and EV buyers should look elsewhere rather than buying this death trap.
That is all.
Om said:
Reading some of the quotes from Dacia and Renault in the article it suggests that the manufacturers are starting to push back against the ever more stringent NCAP regulations.
They are not "regulations". It's an independent body doing its own tests, the manufactures are under no legal obligation to pander to them. My car wasn't tested at all. If customers continue to demand safer and safer cars, the tests are going to continue getting stricter and stricter.
Didn't the same happen to the Fiat Punto? Went from 5 to 0 stars because of the passive safety nonsense?
As above, I have thought for ages there should be a rating for crash prevention and crash protection. What use is a car with blind spot assist if it folds up like a packet of crisps when you end up in a crash?
As above, I have thought for ages there should be a rating for crash prevention and crash protection. What use is a car with blind spot assist if it folds up like a packet of crisps when you end up in a crash?
kambites said:
Om said:
Reading some of the quotes from Dacia and Renault in the article it suggests that the manufacturers are starting to push back against the ever more stringent NCAP regulations.
They are not "regulations". It's an independent body doing its own tests, the manufactures are under no legal obligation to pander to them. My car wasn't tested at all. If customers continue to demand safer and safer cars, the tests are going to continue getting stricter and stricter.
The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) is a European voluntary car safety performance assessment programme (i.e. a New Car Assessment Program) based in Leuven (Belgium) formed in 1996, with the first results released in February 1997.[1] It was originally started by the Transport Research Laboratory for the UK Department for Transport, but later backed by several European governments, as well as by the European Union.[2] Their slogan is "For Safer Cars".
Certainly their report and score on the Zoe is daft and I would imagine Renault will be exploring some legal options against NCAP.
Edited by Largechris on Thursday 9th December 09:57
Frimley111R said:
I think they should. In the past few years I hear more and more from drivers who are sick of nannying tech. One, last week, ditched his new LR Defender (£62K) and bought an old Discovery because he hated the lane assist, emergency braking and continual bings and bongs.
My wife had a new insignia as a company car a few years ago. When you'd locked it and started walking away you could still hear it bonging about stuff to itself! james6546 said:
Frimley111R said:
I think they should. In the past few years I hear more and more from drivers who are sick of nannying tech. One, last week, ditched his new LR Defender (£62K) and bought an old Discovery because he hated the lane assist, emergency braking and continual bings and bongs.
My wife had a new insignia as a company car a few years ago. When you'd locked it and started walking away you could still hear it bonging about stuff to itself! It's just another unfortunate area where the normal, intelligent majority are having their life invaded by an incessant need to nanny the idiots.
Having cars soil themselves due to a hedge, confusing a bollard with a child or fannying about with the steering wheel when you're crossing a road marking is remarkably tiresome and distracting.
Finding a well build, good car that isn't a passive aggressive, invasive Japanese toilet is becoming a Holy Grail.
Merry said:
Aside from changing an air bag, which will obviously make the score worse how else has the car changed?
I understand the need to make the tests more stringent over time to a degree but it's getting a bit daft now, I also can't help there should be two scores, one for active safety (auto brake and such) and passive safety to make things a bit clearer.
Likewise, I think that the crash avoidance stuff should be separated from the crash performance score. I understand the need to make the tests more stringent over time to a degree but it's getting a bit daft now, I also can't help there should be two scores, one for active safety (auto brake and such) and passive safety to make things a bit clearer.
I also think that the pedestrian/vulnerable road user aspects should be a dedicated score, as the importance of this varies wildly depending upon how an individual uses their car. Much more valuable to somebody who does most of their driving in urban areas than to someone who covers thousands of motorway miles, where pedestrians and cyclists and so on are not encountered.
Trying to amalgamate all this into a single score isn't terribly helpful, and leads to this "OMG THIS CAR IS SO UNSAFE" narrative which in most cases is disingenuous - a previously 5 star car is not suddenly a death trap just because it's tech has been superseded.
Jonny_ said:
Likewise, I think that the crash avoidance stuff should be separated from the crash performance score.
I also think that the pedestrian/vulnerable road user aspects should be a dedicated score, as the importance of this varies wildly depending upon how an individual uses their car. Much more valuable to somebody who does most of their driving in urban areas than to someone who covers thousands of motorway miles, where pedestrians and cyclists and so on are not encountered.
They already are separate scores; it's that that all of the different individual scores get rolled up into a single overall one. I also think that the pedestrian/vulnerable road user aspects should be a dedicated score, as the importance of this varies wildly depending upon how an individual uses their car. Much more valuable to somebody who does most of their driving in urban areas than to someone who covers thousands of motorway miles, where pedestrians and cyclists and so on are not encountered.
The Zoe got:
43% for "adult occupancy"
52% for "child occupancy"
41% for "vulnerable road user"
14% for "safety assist"
Each of those things will have different importance for different people which is presumably why they public them as individual scores.
To put that in perspective by comparing it to another small BEV, the Fiat 500e just got 76%, 80%, 67% and 67% for those categories.
Edited by kambites on Thursday 9th December 11:10
Kawasicki said:
A lot of the active safety tech isn’t mature, so I can see the logic for people avoiding that at the mo.
It's why EuroNCAP test it thoroughly, if fitted. Just AEB has more than a dozen scenarios they test.Most damning for me on the Zoe was the difference the newer (cheaper) airbag setup made:
https://twitter.com/CillDar/status/146865825745992...
The biggest thing I'd like to see is clearer marking of what testing a rating was done against, and how long ago. Renault were advertising a car as 5-star EuroNCAP in 2021 from a rating done in 2013 - the car has been substantially revised twice since.
kambites said:
To put that in perspective by comparing it to another small BEV, the Fiat 500e just got 76%, 80%, 67% and 67% for those categories.
All whilst costing £4k less. Renault need to seriously up their game and focus more on this stuff than fitting ever larger batteries to what is essentially a city car with a 250 mile range but a max charge rate of only 46kW.Edited by kambites on Thursday 9th December 11:10
Lil_Red_GTV said:
So they changed the design of the side airbags and it went from a 5 star car to a zero star car? That doesn't seem right.
Nope, it was a 5 star car when originally tested back in 2013 at launch, since then there have been many changes in NCAP protocols, these protocols generally change every 2 years, since 2013 to 2021 the ZOE has remained largely unchanged, yet NCAP testing protocols have changed many times, with testing becoming far stricter, hence why the ZOE is now a zero star car, it is no less safe now than it was in 2013.Edited by HTP99 on Thursday 9th December 12:03
Very few cars produced 8 years ago would get more than 1 or 2 stars overall now, even if they got 5 when new. It is a bit crap that they've made it less safe though. Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff