Photo: NHTSA
One hand taketh away the other giveth, to paraphrase a saying that’s been known to go around. It was just hours ago that we learned the mighty National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is asking Tesla to recall some 158,000 vehicles for issues related to the in-car tablet, but there’s good news on another front coming from the same NHTSA. The Model Y just became the latest EV to receive a 5-star rating for crashworthiness.
A Model Y Long Range AWD was tested by the safety watchdog as part of its New Car Assessment Program, and after it was all said and done, the SUV (or rather, its occupants would have) emerged pretty much unscathed, thus earning NHTSA’s top rating.
The machine went through the usual trials and tribulations. It was slammed head-on against a barrier while the SUV moved at a speed meant to simulate a frontal collision with two vehicles going 35 mph (56 kph) each and was also slammed sideways. In both cases, the Y scored great.
Its rollover behavior was also checked, with the Model Y parked on a rotating suspended platform meant to highlight the vehicle’s center of gravity and moments of inertia. The NHTSA found there is a 7.9 percent chance of rollover, and that percentage is the lowest of any SUV tested to date.
“As with all Tesla vehicles, Model Y’s architecture is fundamentally designed to have a very low center of gravity, which is accomplished by strategically placing its heavy battery pack and electric motors low down in the vehicle,” the carmaker said in a statement.
That’s right, an official statement, the kind Tesla rarely bothers to make. The NHTSA rating must have pushed the right buttons for the carmaker to go to the trouble of sketching one up. Because such an occurrence is so rare, we attached the statement in full in the press release section below.
The machine went through the usual trials and tribulations. It was slammed head-on against a barrier while the SUV moved at a speed meant to simulate a frontal collision with two vehicles going 35 mph (56 kph) each and was also slammed sideways. In both cases, the Y scored great.
Its rollover behavior was also checked, with the Model Y parked on a rotating suspended platform meant to highlight the vehicle’s center of gravity and moments of inertia. The NHTSA found there is a 7.9 percent chance of rollover, and that percentage is the lowest of any SUV tested to date.
“As with all Tesla vehicles, Model Y’s architecture is fundamentally designed to have a very low center of gravity, which is accomplished by strategically placing its heavy battery pack and electric motors low down in the vehicle,” the carmaker said in a statement.
That’s right, an official statement, the kind Tesla rarely bothers to make. The NHTSA rating must have pushed the right buttons for the carmaker to go to the trouble of sketching one up. Because such an occurrence is so rare, we attached the statement in full in the press release section below.
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