For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Volvo XC40 Recharge have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Hyundai Ioniq Electric doesn’t offer pretensioners for the rear seat belts.
The XC40 Recharge’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Ioniq Electric doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the XC40 Recharge and Ioniq Electric have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The XC40 Recharge has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Ioniq Electric’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The XC40 Recharge has a standard Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), which use a specially designed seat to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the WHIPS allows the backrest to travel backwards to cushion the occupants and the headrests move forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. At the same time the pretensioning seatbelts fire, removing slack from the belts. The Ioniq Electric doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The XC40 Recharge has standard Automatic Braking After Collision, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Ioniq Electric doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The XC40 Recharge offers an optional CTA Auto Brake that use rear sensors to monitor and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a rear collision. The Ioniq Electric doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The XC40 Recharge has all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The Ioniq Electric doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
The XC40 Recharge offers an optional 360-Degree Surround View Camera to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Ioniq Electric only offers a rear monitor.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the XC40 Recharge has a standard rear cross-path warning system, which uses sensors in the rear bumper to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side, helping the driver avoid collisions. Rear cross-path warning costs extra on the Ioniq Electric.
Both the XC40 Recharge and the Ioniq Electric have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras and driver alert monitors.
The Volvo XC40 Recharge weighs 1370 pounds more than the Hyundai Ioniq Electric. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the XC40 Recharge its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 77 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Ioniq Electric has not been tested, yet.