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 GX doesn’t offer pretensioners for the rear seat belts.
Both the E-Pace and Encore GX 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 GX’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 GX’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 GX doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
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 GX.
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 GX doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the E-Pace and the Encore GX 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, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, available blind spot warning systems, around view monitors and rear cross-path warning.
The Jaguar E-Pace weighs 652 to 1110 pounds more than the Buick Encore GX. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.