For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Jaguar E-Pace 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 Buick Encore doesn’t offer pretensioners for the rear seat belts.
Both the E-Pace and Encore have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The E-Pace 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 Encore’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.
Using vehicle speed sensors and seat sensors, smart airbags in the E-Pace deploy with different levels of force to help better protect passengers of all sizes in different collisions. The E-Pace’s side airbags will shut off if a child is leaning against the door. The Encore’s airbags don’t have smart features and will always deploy full force.
The E-Pace has standard Whiplash Reduction System, which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the Whiplash Reduction System moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. The Encore doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The E-Pace has standard Autonomous Emergency Braking, which use forward mounted sensors to warn the driver of a possible collision ahead. If the driver doesn’t react and the system determines a collision is imminent, it automatically applies the brakes at full-force in order to reduce the force of the crash or avoid it altogether. The Encore offers an available collision warning system without the automated brake feature that would prevent or reduce the collision if the driver fails to react.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the E-Pace. But it costs extra on the Encore.
The E-Pace’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Encore.
The E-Pace SE/300 Sport offers an optional 3D Surround Camera to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Encore 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.
The E-Pace’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Encore doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the E-Pace and the Encore have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights, rearview cameras, available blind spot warning systems and rear cross-path warning.
The Jaguar E-Pace weighs 567 to 898 pounds more than the Buick Encore. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.