Thatcham impressed with 5-star VW iD.4 and Skoda Enyaq

Vehicle safety standards within the Electrical Vehicle (EV) market have been further boosted after the Volkswagen ID.4 and Skoda Enyaq emerged from the latest round of Euro NCAP assessments with maximum five-star safety ratings.

UK-based Thatcham Research says both cars are expected to be extremely popular model choices within the EV market in the United Kingdom which it says continues to go from strength-to-strength.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) revealed this week that there are now 500,000 EVs on UK roads.

The ID.4’s five-star success comes hot on the heels of the identical rating awarded to its ID family counterpart, the ID.3, at the end of 2020.

Featuring a standard, centre-mounted airbag to prevent interaction between front seat passengers in a side impact, the ID.4 scored 93% for adult occupant protection, while its child occupant score was 89%. Its vulnerable road user score was 76%, and a suite of effective safety assist systems helped it achieve 85% for active safety.

The Skoda Enyaq, an entry in the large off-road segment, scored well in the frontal offset test, highlighting how the car has been engineered not to cause excessive damage to other vehicles in a collision. It therefore scored 94% for its adult occupant protection. Its child occupant protection score was identical to the ID.4 at 89%.

The Enyaq’s vulnerable road user score was 71%, partly because it provided mixed results when assessed for injuries it could cause to the pelvis of a struck pedestrian. Finally, the Enyaq’s safety assist score was pegged back to 82% because, unlike the ID.4, it doesn’t feature a driver monitoring system as standard – an important new safety feature likely to be fitted to more vehicles in the future.

Thatcham Research’s Director of Insurance Research Matthew Avery welcomed Volkswagen Group’s latest Euro NCAP results.

“It’s very satisfying to see the VW ID.4 and Skoda Enyaq being awarded five-star ratings because they represent the future of all-electric motoring and will account for many sales in the EV crossover market,” Avery says.

“These impressive results show that Volkswagen Group hasn’t compromised safety in favour of the environment and that’s an approach we wholeheartedly endorse,” he says