ARLINGTON, Va. – Last week the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced that three new electric vehicles (EVs) had achieved its TOP SAFETY PICK+, the highest safety rating the organization can bestow on a vehicle.
Joining the 2023 Genesis Electrified GV70 compact sport utility amongst the trio are the 2023 Lexus RZ small SUV and the 2023 Ioniq 6 mid-size four-door sedan.
“It’s exciting to see three new EVs from different brands with the highest level of safety,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “Making sure safety continues to be a priority in alternatively powered vehicles is critical if we are going to achieve the vision of zero traffic fatalities.”
To qualify for TOP SAFETY PICK+ in 2023, a vehicle must earn good ratings in the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, original moderate overlap front and updated side tests. Acceptable or good headlights must be standard across all trims, and a front crash prevention system that earns advanced or superior ratings in both the daytime and nighttime vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations must be available.
In contrast, for the lower-tier TOP SAFETY PICK award, an acceptable rating in the updated side test is enough, and vehicles only need to demonstrate advanced or superior performance in the daytime pedestrian test.
Introduced for the 2023 model year, all three EVs meet the requirements for the higher-tier award.
“To be environmentally friendly, our vehicles and our cities also need to be pedestrian-friendly,” said Harkey. “All three of these vehicles have standard front crash prevention systems designed to protect pedestrians both during the day and at night, when most fatal pedestrian crashes happen,” Harkey said.
The Electrified GV70, a midsize luxury SUV, earns advanced ratings in both the daytime and nighttime vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention evaluations. The Hyundai Ioniq 6, a midsize car, and the Lexux RZ, a small SUV, earn superior ratings in the two tests.
The Electrified GV70 comes with good-rated headlights across all trims, while the Ioniq 6 and RZ have standard acceptable-rated headlights.
