For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Nissan Ariya 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 Chevrolet Bolt EUV doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The Ariya Platinum+ has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The Bolt EUV doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Ariya has standard Rear Automatic Braking that use rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a collision. The Bolt EUV doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Ariya offers all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The Bolt EUV doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
The Ariya has a standard blind spot warning system that uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them and moves the vehicle back into its lane. A system to reveal vehicles in the Bolt EUV’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Ariya has standard Rear Cross Traffic Alert, helping the driver avoid collisions. Chevrolet charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Bolt EUV.
The Ariya’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 Bolt EUV doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Ariya and the Bolt EUV have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front and rear side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front wheel drive, 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 available around view monitors.
The Nissan Ariya weighs 608 to 1377 pounds more than the Chevrolet Bolt EUV. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
For its performance in IIHS driver-side and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, updated side impact, headlight, daytime pedestrian crash prevention, and nighttime pedestrian crash prevention testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Ariya its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2023, a rating granted to only 67 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Bolt EUV has not been tested, yet.