Tesla Crash-Test Ratings, Explained

Tesla loves to talk about safety, and skeptics love to roll their eyes at it. The nice thing is that nobody has to take Tesla’s word for anything: three independent organizations buy these cars, strap crash dummies into them, and slam them into barriers on camera. We don’t run crash tests at VoltEdge — nobody outside those labs does — so this guide does the next most useful thing: it explains what each rating system actually measures, then lists the real, current ratings for every Tesla model with the source attached to every number. If you want the bigger argument about whether Teslas are among the safest cars on the road, we make that case separately. This page is the decoder ring.

The three rating bodies, in plain English (NHTSA vs IIHS vs Euro NCAP)

NHTSA is the U.S. government — the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Its New Car Assessment Program awards one to five stars based on instrumented crash tests: a full-width frontal impact, side impacts, and a rollover-resistance measurement. Five stars is the ceiling, and a surprising number of new cars get there, so think of NHTSA as the baseline test.

IIHS — the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety — is funded by insurers, who have a direct financial interest in finding the cars that hurt people. Its tests are deliberately nastier (the small overlap front test crushes just 25% of the car’s front end into a barrier), it grades on a four-step scale of Good / Acceptable / Marginal / Poor, and it hands out two awards: Top Safety Pick and the harder Top Safety Pick+.

Euro NCAP is the European consumer-testing consortium. Instead of stars-plus-awards, it publishes four percentage scores — adult occupant, child occupant, vulnerable road users, and safety assist — and a car must clear minimum thresholds in all four to earn five stars. It’s the most granular of the three, and currently the toughest grader of active-safety tech.

How to read a 5-star NHTSA rating

NHTSA’s stars are relative, not absolute: they compare a vehicle’s measured injury risk in the frontal, side, and rollover tests against the average vehicle. Five stars overall means your injury risk in a crash is well below that average. The overall star count is a weighted blend of the three categories, so always look at the breakdown — a car can carry five stars overall while hiding a four-star category. No current Tesla does: NHTSA lists every Tesla model at five stars overall and five stars in frontal, side, and rollover. The rollover number is worth a special look for SUVs, because it’s where tall vehicles traditionally give back stars — and where Tesla’s skateboard battery quietly dominates, as we’ll get to below.

What IIHS Top Safety Pick+ actually requires

For the 2025 award year, IIHS requires Good ratings in the small overlap front test and the updated side test, an Acceptable-or-better headlight rating on every trim, and an Advanced-or-better score in pedestrian front crash prevention. What separates the regular Top Safety Pick from the “+” is the updated moderate overlap front test, which since 2022 puts a second dummy in the back seat to measure rear-passenger protection: a Good rating there earns Top Safety Pick+, while Acceptable earns the standard award. IIHS also publishes ratings the awards don’t hinge on — roof strength, head restraints, LATCH ease-of-use, and seatbelt reminders — which is why a car can take home an award while still carrying an Acceptable or Marginal grade somewhere on its scorecard. The Model 3’s 2025 result is a perfect example, and we’ll be honest about it below.

Euro NCAP’s four scores

Adult occupant covers protection of the driver and front passenger across frontal, side, and whiplash tests — anything above 90% is elite. Child occupant measures protection of child dummies in the rear plus how well the car accommodates child seats. Vulnerable road users grades what the car does to the pedestrian or cyclist it hits — hood deformation zones, pop-up mitigation, and autonomous braking for people and bikes. Safety assist grades the active systems: automatic emergency braking, lane support, speed assistance, and driver monitoring. That last category is where camera-based systems like Tesla’s get stress-tested by an independent lab — relevant context if you’re wondering how safe Autopilot really is.

Tesla Model 3 ratings

NHTSA: five stars overall, with five-star frontal, side, and rollover ratings — a streak the sedan has held since the agency first tested it in 2018, when it earned five stars in every category and subcategory, and which NHTSA’s listings carry through to the current Highland-refresh car.

IIHS: the 2025 Model 3 earned Top Safety Pick — the standard award, not the “+”. IIHS rated it Good in the small overlap front and side tests, but Acceptable in the updated moderate overlap test (the rear dummy’s chest injury measure was rated Marginal) and Acceptable for headlights. That’s the honest asterisk: front-seat protection is top-shelf, rear-passenger restraint tuning has room to improve under IIHS’s newest test.

Euro NCAP: the Highland Model 3 scored five stars under the current, much stricter protocol — 90% adult occupant, 93% child occupant, 89% vulnerable road users, and 87% safety assist — and Euro NCAP named it the best-performing car in its class for 2025 (the overall Best Performer of 2025 was the Mercedes-Benz CLA).

Tesla Model Y ratings

The world’s best-selling EV is also arguably its most decorated crash-test subject.

NHTSA: five stars overall and five stars in frontal, side, and rollover — including the refreshed 2026 “Juniper” car, which NHTSA rated in February 2026. When NHTSA first assessed the Model Y, Tesla noted the agency’s measured rollover risk of 7.9% was the lowest of any SUV NHTSA had ever recorded. And in May 2026, the Model Y became the first vehicle to meet NHTSA’s brand-new driver-assistance safety benchmark (a pass/fail ADAS evaluation applying to cars built after November 12, 2025), per TechCrunch and Kelley Blue Book.

IIHS: the 2025 Model Y earned Top Safety Pick+ — its fifth consecutive year taking IIHS’s highest award, with Good ratings across the small overlap front, updated moderate overlap, and side tests.

Euro NCAP: the Juniper refresh was tested in late 2025 under the current protocol and scored five stars: 91% adult occupant, 93% child occupant, 86% vulnerable road users, and 92% safety assist. Euro NCAP’s datasheet shows that 93% child-occupant score matched the best result of the year, and the Model Y and Model 3 took dual best-in-class honors for 2025.

Model S, X, and Cybertruck (what we know)

Model S: NHTSA awarded it five stars overall and in every category, and in 2022 Euro NCAP gave it five stars with 94% adult occupant, 91% child occupant, 85% vulnerable road users, and a 98% safety assist score — per Tesla’s announcement, the highest overall score of any vehicle tested under Euro NCAP’s 2020–2022 protocol. IIHS has not rated the current Model S under its latest test battery.

Model X: NHTSA’s testing made it the first SUV ever to earn five stars in every category and subcategory, and Euro NCAP awarded it five stars with a 98% adult-occupant score under the 2019 protocol. Like the Model S, it sells in small volumes, so IIHS hasn’t put the current car through its newest tests — that’s a data gap, not a red flag.

Cybertruck: the skeptics’ favorite target turned out to be a lab favorite. NHTSA awarded it a 5-star overall rating with five stars in frontal, side, and rollover, and in December 2025 IIHS named it a Top Safety Pick+ — the only pickup truck to hold that award — with Good ratings in every crashworthiness test, including the updated moderate overlap. One honest caveat: the IIHS award applies to Cybertrucks built from April 2025 onward, after Tesla revised the front underbody structure. And Euro NCAP has no Cybertruck data at all, because the truck isn’t sold in Europe.

Why Teslas crash-test well

Four engineering ingredients keep showing up in these results. First, the low center of gravity: a half-ton battery mounted under the floor makes the whole car bottom-heavy, which is why NHTSA’s rollover-resistance numbers for Teslas embarrass conventional SUVs — rollovers are the deadliest common crash type, so this matters more than it sounds. Second, the frunk: with no engine block up front, the entire nose is a programmable crumple zone that can spend more distance absorbing energy before anything stiff reaches the cabin. Third, the rigid battery pack doubles as structure — a stiff slab across the floor that resists side intrusion and keeps the passenger cell square while the extremities crumple. Fourth, advanced restraints: Tesla tunes its airbags and seatbelt pretensioners using crash data streamed back from its own fleet, and Euro NCAP’s 90%+ adult-occupant scores on every recent Tesla suggest the tuning works. None of this is VoltEdge’s opinion — it’s the consistent pattern across three independent labs on two continents.

Tesla safety ratings at a glance (2026)

Sources: NHTSA · IIHS · Euro NCAP. Ratings are tied to specific model years and, in some cases, build dates — verify your exact configuration before you buy. If you’re taking delivery soon, our new owner first-week checklist covers the safety settings worth enabling on day one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a 5-star NHTSA rating actually mean?

NHTSA’s stars compare a vehicle’s measured injury risk in frontal, side, and rollover testing against the average vehicle — five stars overall means crash-injury risk well below average. Every current Tesla model holds a 5-star overall NHTSA rating.

What’s the difference between IIHS Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+?

Both require Good ratings in the small overlap front and updated side tests, plus qualifying headlights and pedestrian-detecting front crash prevention. The “+” hinges on the updated moderate overlap test with a rear-seat dummy: Good earns Top Safety Pick+, Acceptable earns the standard award.

Is the Tesla Model Y one of the strongest safety picks among SUVs?

It has one of the strongest paper trails of any SUV ever rated: 5-star NHTSA ratings in every category, IIHS Top Safety Pick+ five years running through 2025, and five Euro NCAP stars on the 2025 refresh. Tesla noted NHTSA’s measured rollover risk of 7.9% was the lowest the agency had recorded for an SUV. We make the full case in our Tesla safety deep-dive.

Why did the 2025 Model 3 get Top Safety Pick instead of Top Safety Pick+?

IIHS rated it Acceptable rather than Good in the updated moderate overlap front test — mainly rear-passenger chest injury measures — and rated its headlights Acceptable. Front-occupant protection still scored Good across the crash tests.

Has the Cybertruck been crash-tested?

Yes. NHTSA awarded it five stars overall with 5-star frontal, side, and rollover ratings, and IIHS named it a Top Safety Pick+ for trucks built from April 2025 onward — the only pickup holding both honors. Euro NCAP hasn’t tested it because it isn’t sold in Europe.

Which Tesla has the best Euro NCAP score?

Under the 2022 protocol, the Model S posted the highest overall score of any vehicle in Euro NCAP’s 2020–2022 protocol period (94% adult occupant, 98% safety assist). Under today’s tougher protocol, the refreshed Model Y scored 91/93/86/92 and the Model 3 was named best in its class for 2025.

Do these ratings apply to older or used Teslas?

Not automatically. Ratings attach to specific model years and sometimes build dates — the Cybertruck’s IIHS award covers trucks built from April 2025, and the Model Y’s NHTSA driver-assistance benchmark applies to builds after November 12, 2025. Check your exact model year on the IIHS and NHTSA sites.

Do crash-test ratings say anything about Autopilot?

Mostly no — crash tests measure how a car protects you in an impact. Active systems are graded separately: Euro NCAP’s Safety Assist score covers emergency braking and lane support, and in May 2026 the Model Y became the first vehicle to meet NHTSA’s new driver-assistance benchmark. For the full picture, see our guide to how safe Autopilot is.

Related: Are Teslas Among the Safest Cars on the Road? · How Safe Is Autopilot, Really? · New Owner First-Week Checklist