Tesla has won another accolade in the European market as its flagship Model S was one of the four cars to achieve the maximum rating, with the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer, Nissan Pulsar and Skoda Fabia also getting five stars.
Tesla Model S scored well across all four assessment categories, getting 82% for adult occupation protection, 71% for safety assist, 77% for child protection and slightly lower 66% for pedestrian protection. This five-star accolade puts the Model S on a par with competitors like the BMW 5 Series, Audi A6 and Mercedes E-Class, which all managed five stars when they were tested. Although their individual category scores are higher than the Model S, it is worth mentioning that the Euro NCAP tests are becoming stricter day by day.
Nissan Pulsar was the best all-round performer out of the six cars put through the tests whereas the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer scored the highest for an individual category with 85% for child occupants’ protection. Suzuki Celerio, the Japanese automakers budget city car, was only given three stars.
The main reason for this was the absence of a curtain airbag on the cheapest model. Its main competitor, the rival Hyundai i10 scored 79% for the adult occupant category and 56% for safety assist. After the results were published Suzuki announced that UK specification Celerios will come with curtain airbags as standard. Renault Megane was also tested in the most recent round of crash tests and it was bumped up to four stars after previously being downgraded to three. These five stars will give a huge boost to Tesla sales in Europe.