• By
  • Jonathan Welsh
Tesla Motors Inc.
Tesla Model S

Electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. said its Model S sedan “set a new record for the lowest likelihood of injury to occupants” in federal safety tests performed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The company said the received the top 5-star rating “across the board,” reflecting its performance in front, side, rear and rollover accidents.

Tesla also said only about 1% of all cars tested by the federal government get 5 stars in all categories, and added that while NHTSA does not publish star ratings above 5, the agency’s overall vehicle safety score, or VSS, records higher ratings that it shares with manufacturers. Under this expanded scoring system, the Model S received “a new combined record of 5.4 stars,” Tesla said.

“Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested by US govt,” Tesla boss Elon Musk tweeted following release of the tests.

NHTSA officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Tesla said the Model S has an advantage in front-end crashes because it has no engine block under its hood. As a result, there is a longer, more consistent “crumple zone” to absorb the energy of impacts. Tesla explained it this way:


The Model S’s electric motor is smaller than a typical gasoline engine and is mounted near the rear axle, so the front section that is normally the engine compartment is used as a second trunk.

Tesla said aluminum extrusions in the side rails of the Model S absorb crash energy and spread it to the rest of the vehicle. This setup helped its perform well in the NHTSA pole-test, which simulates single-vehicle accidents involving poles, trees and other obstacles that focus impact forces on a small area of the car.

For rear-impacts, the company installs a double rear bumper if the car is ordered with a third row seat. This structure is designed to “protect against a highway speed impact in the rear with no permanently disabling injury to the third row occupants,” Tesla said.

For the rollover test, which checks the vehicle’s resistance to the crushing forces of a rollover crash, a machine applies force to the car’s roof. But the machine broke at around the 4g mark, which is beyond the federal standard.


The company also said that after selling more than 15,000 cars worldwide, it knows of fatalities of from crashes in any of its Model S or Roadster models, but noted “this is statistically unlikely to remain the case long term.”

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