Perhaps I should just tell her not to side-swipe a telegraph pole on the driver's side.

It's a bit embarrassing for a company that always drew attention to their high NCAP ratings. Weren't they the first company to have NCAP 5 across all models? I think I read it somewhere.

Yes, I agree it is embarrassing for Renault. Not sure about all models, but they were certainly some of the safest (according to EuroNCAP) cars on the road back in the day (early-mid noughties). Of course the Zoe is now 9 years old and the criteria has changed in that time, so as Andy says, it isn't as bad as it appears.

In its 2013 EuroNCAP crash test, it scores 5 out of 5, with the following individual ratings, 89% adult occupancy, 80% child occupancy, 66% pedestrian and 85% safety assist systems.

So for the OP, I wouldn't get too alarmed about it.

Both the similarly sized Fiat 500e and Toyots Yaris Cross have also been tested to the 2021 standard and did much better for occupant protection than the Zoe. Even the Dacia Spring (which I think is fairly closely related to the Zoe underneath) managed better with a 1 star rating.

The Fiat 500e is a completely different car to the 500, they share no parts at all. The Yaris Cross is a brand new car based on the platform of the (new) Yaris, itself a much younger car than the Zoe.

The Dacia Spring is a much smaller car than the Zoe and shares nothing in common with it. it uses a platform which underpins various other very small cars within the group (Renault Kwid, Renault City K-ZE, Datsun red-GO) along with a couple of Chinese collaborations. With the exception of the Datsun (sold in Indian markets), they all look pretty much the same.

Neither of my somewhat elderly cars (Triumph TR7 DHC, Audi A8) have a euro NCAP rating. One is extremely safe, the other........er.... is driven, ahem, even more carefully.

I sure I read that the gradings are relative to the class, so a four star big car is still safer than a five star supermini. I think the Jaguar XF was four star when it was launched but I know that's one car I would be happy in if the unfortunate happened.

I presume that designing an EV for crash protection is a different ball game from an ICE car ? because the heaviest lumps are in different parts of the vehicle ? Not good to have a large metallic lump trying to overtake the driver if he/she hits something solid ?

Battery packs are part of floor pan on a lot of evs, bolted in. motor/s are either in front like an engine or where axle used to be at rear so in accident the motors pushed down away from driver passengers

My only problem with battery cases are the material they are made of even though they are stronger than steel so they say