For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Porsche Panamera are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The BMW 530e doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
Both the Panamera and 530e have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Panamera 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 530e’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 Panamera offers available whiplash protection, which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the whiplash protection system moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. The 530e doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The Panamera offers an optional Surround View System to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The 530e only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
Both the Panamera and the 530e have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, available crash mitigating brakes, night vision systems and blind spot warning systems.