The best-selling Renault Zoe has seen its reputation for safety hit a wall following a disastrous series of crash tests at the independent agency Euro NCAP.The car had previously achieved a full five star rating when it was last tested in 2013, but the Zoe has now had all of its stars removed and become only the third car in history to be zero rated. 

A poor result has previously resulted in models being removed from sale, with cars such as the Fiat Punto and Rover 100 killed off by the bad publicity. 

The Renault’s result is partly due to new, stricter tests which require electronic crash prevention devices to be fitted across the range, but Euro NCAP also noticed that the 2020 update of the Zoe actually included a downgrade of the safety kit. 

The seat-mounted side airbag which previously protected head and thorax has been replaced by a less effective thorax-only airbag, The NCAP report said it represented “a degradation in occupant protection. The new ZOE offers poor protection in crashes overall, poor vulnerable road user protection and lacks meaningful crash avoidance technology, disqualifying it for any stars.” 

Renault’s sister company Dacia also came under fire, with its Spring electric city car getting just one star. 

The organisation’s boss Michiel van Ratingen said: “Renault was once synonymous with safety. The Laguna was the first car to get five stars, back in 2001. But these disappointing results for the ZOE and the Dacia Spring show that safety has now become collateral damage in the group’s transition to electric cars….. not only do these cars fail to offer any appreciable active safety as standard, but their occupant protection is also worse than any vehicle we have seen in many years. 

“It is cynical to offer the consumer an affordable green car if it comes at the price of higher injury risk in the event of an accident. Other cars, such as the FIAT 500e, recently awarded 5 stars in Green NCAP, show that safety does not need to be sacrificed for environmental cleanliness.”

The safety kit of the Zoe was actually downgraded in the 2020 facelift, say NCAP