A fully electric car has been tested for the first time by safety authority Euro NCAP, which has published the results of seven new vehicles.

Euro NCAP is the organisation that crash tests new cars to provide motoring consumers with assessment of their safety performance, awarding them safety ratings. Their latest results award the Mitsubishi  i-MiEV with four stars. The i-MiEV shares its rating with its twin models, the Citroën C-Zero and Peugeot iOn, which have the same design and safety equipment. The results mark the start of a series of EV tests in 2011.

Dr Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP’s Secretary General said: “We recognise the efforts done by Mitsubishi to demonstrate that plug-in battery powered cars can be as safe as others. It shows that a future 5 star accolade for EVs is not unthinkable. Whether produced by established car manufacturers or by new players on the market, consumers should expect to get electric vehicles that meet the same safety standards as conventional vehicles.”

The rating scheme used by Euro NCAP considers the safety of the following elements involved in the event of a crash: adult, child, pedestrian and safety assist.

Plug-in vehicles are tested with live batteries and the cars are exposed to the same test conditions as the other cars in the programme. According to Euro NCAP, special attention is given to post-crash battery integrity and the proper functioning of the battery cut-off switch that isolates the high-voltage battery in the event of a crash. In order to test these cars in a safe manner, extra precautions are taken before, during and after testing. No electrical or fire hazards were detected during the testing of the i-MiEV.

In Mitsubishi  i-MiEV's category – supermini – are also comparable the conventionally-fuelled Hyundai ix20 and Nissan Juke, both with five starts. But if we look back to 2010, the Kia Venga is in its same star rating and the Citroen Nemo is one star below, another indicator that shows that  zero-emissions vehicles could play in the same league as other cars in safety matters.

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