Renault’s NZ agent reckons the car sold here counts as being safer than a version that’s been shamed by a leading crash testing agency.

RENAULT’S local distributor is arguing the Zoe electric car as it sells in New Zealand should not considered identical to the model that’s just copped a massive serve from a respected safety agency.

Independent safety organisation Euro NCAP has just given the city-centric electric hatchback a galling zero stars in its latest round of testing, making it only the third car ever to receive the lowest rating.

The same generation of this model has now just come on sale in New Zealand, but national distributor Renault NZ, a Global Motors New Zealand holding, claims it shouldn’t be tarred by the NCAP outcome on grounds the car as it avails here has several driver assists that didn’t feature on the variant which failed the Euro NCAP test.

Regardless that all Zoes lack automated emergency braking, a feature independent safety agencies cite as now being vital for a top score, Renault NZ argues the car it sells should still be considered as worthy of a four star accreditation, from a different, but also controversial, kind of assessment.

It’s a stance that likely reflects concern about potential about consumer confidence in the car being set to erode. Zero scores are rare, but there’s already another vehicle here with that score, this time from Australasian NCAP: The Mitsubishi Express van is the only vehicle ever to get the lowest possible score from that agency.

At a time when Kiwis are being encouraged to rely upon crash test results to ensure they make best possible buying decisions, the Zoe saga might raise debate about whether some safety score datasets offered here are more reliable than others.

The Zoe was originally tested by Euro NCAP in 2013, when it was awarded five stars.

It was entered into the tests following a substantial facelift last year which ushered in a bigger battery and extra power but also, the safety organisation notes, a new seat-mounted side airbag that protects just the occupant's thorax, rather than the head and thorax as it did previously.

Explaining its rating, Euro NCAP said the model scored poorly in the safety assist category, where its score was considerably below the average achieved by other car makers. It also performed poorly for adult occupant protection in crash tests, including those that simulate the worst accidents.

New Zealand receives the refreshed Zoe in $65,990 (pre-rebate) flagship Intens and $2000-cheaper Zen formats.

Kimberley Waters, sponsorship, events and publicity officer, put Renault NZ’s case after being approached for comment.

“The Euro NCAP tests are not directly relatable to our market due to specification differences between the European Zoe and that which we bring into New Zealand.”

At this point, it might be helpful to understand that New Zealand doesn’t prioritise Euro NCAP ratings as highly as it used to – at least, not directly.

Our primary safety agency is Australasian NCAP (ANCAP), which bases in Melbourne and is heavily funded by NZ Government agencies and also achieves support from the Automobile Association.

Euro NCAP and ANCAP are nonetheless sister organisations.

ANCAP crash tests of product sold in Australia and New Zealand are to the protocols established by Euro NCAP. It also often adopts Euro NCAP scores as ANCAP results.

More than 90 percent of all new passenger, sports utility and light commercial vehicles sold in New Zealand are ANCAP-rated.

But as with Euro NCAP, the ANCAP crash test processes are not mandatory so are either undergone by cars entered voluntarily by their manufacturers or by cars purchased by the testing bodies themselves.

There’s another twist. Zoe – as much as anything else because it doesn’t avail new in Australia, only NZ - falls in the group of new vehicles that has no ANCAP score.

Not a problem. There are two other methods used to rate the safety of a vehicle; the Rightcar Used Car Safety Ratings (UCSR) and the Vehicle Safety Risk Rating (VSRR). These are effectively rubber stamp approaches, which estimate star value from consideration of available data. Zoe falls under VSSR. Which means?

Well, again, a lack of clarity. VSSR is an assessment complied by Australia’s Monash University. It creates an estimation of crash worthiness based estimated on data reported from real crashes reported to police in Australia and New Zealand. It’s challenging to see how this helps Zoe. As said, the car is not sold in Australia so there won’t be any stats from that side of the Tasman. And Zoe volume here is so miniscule there’s every potential the dataset from any accidents will be thin, assuming any cars have had crashes to start with. Still on VSSR, Zoe has four stars.

“ANCAP is responsible for and has jurisdiction over safety ratings for the New Zealand market,” says Waters.

“Under the ANCAP protocols, the Zoe is unrated for our market and therefore is classified as a four star under the rightcar.govt.nz Vehicle Safety Risk Rating.”

If four star was an ANCAP score, it would mean it was imperfect yet above average in its crash worthiness. On the VSSR scale, according to Rightcar NZ’s website, four and five stars are the safest.

One criticism raised by Euro NCAP was that the vehicle they tested was not fitted with active safety technology such as lane-departure warnings and AEB, features now standard on most new cars.

Waters says the NZ specification includes lane departure warning. AEB, however, is not yet provisioned on Zoe in any market, though Britain’s Autocar magazine has reported the maker as saying it will become standard to models ordered from March 1, 2022.

Regardless, Waters contends the car that was crash-tested and the NZ market specification models are different enough.

“All our Zoes have additional Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) features that are standard over and above the basic European spec to help reduce the risk of an accident.

“These include Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and high-beam assist that come standard on both the Zen and Intens models. Intens benefits from the addition of blind spot collision warning.”

The car’s more powerful 51kWh lithium ion battery improves range to a cited 395km, as measured on the WLTP scale, and enhances the power output from 68kW to 100kW in the Intens and to 80kW in the Zen.