The 2019 E-Tron was awarded five stars in government crash testing, Audi announced Tuesday, adding to its new EV's safety top-notch credentials.
The E-Tron's five-star overall rating was bolstered by its performance in the government's side-impact and rollover testing, earning five stars for both front and rear passengers in all side impact categories and the same for rollover protection, with only a 9.2-percent rollover risk.
It fell short of a perfect score because of a four-star performance in NHTSA's frontal tests, which measure crash performance between vehicles of similar size and weight hitting each other head-on at 35 mph. Both the driver- and passenger-side frontal impact tests earned the E-Tron four stars.
This is't the E-Tron's first safety nod. Back in August, it was named an IIHS Top Safety Pick+, which is the organization's highest possible safety rating, making it the first EV to do so. The E-Tron got a serious boost from its standard headlights, which earned a "Good" rating—something with which many cars (electric and not) have struggled.
While the E-Tron may be the only EV with a Top Safety Pick+ nod, it's not the only to have earned five stars from NHTSA. Tesla can claim the same for its current passenger-car lineup, every model in which has earned five stars. The Model S performed so well that Tesla boasted that it was the safest car NHTSA had ever tested, but the agency took issue with Tesla's spin on its internal crash data.
Some of the E-Tron's competitors have yet to be tested. IIHS has not yet released data on the Tesla Model X, for example, and the Jaguar I-Pace has yet to be evaluated by either the non-profit or by NHTSA.
