For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Genesis Electrified GV70 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 doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The Electrified GV70’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Bolt doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Genesis Electrified GV70 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 Chevrolet Bolt doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
Both the Electrified GV70 and Bolt have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Electrified GV70 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 Bolt’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 Electrified GV70 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 doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.
Using vehicle speed sensors and seat sensors, smart airbags in the Electrified GV70 deploy with different levels of force or don’t deploy at all to help better protect passengers of all sizes in different collisions. The Electrified GV70’s side airbags will shut off if a child is leaning against the door. The Bolt’s side airbags don’t have smart features and will always deploy full force.
The Electrified GV70 has standard Anti-whiplash Front Head Restraints, which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the Anti-whiplash Front Head Restraints system moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. The Bolt doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Electrified GV70 has a standard Parking Collision-Avoidance Assist Rear that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Bolt doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Electrified GV70 has all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The Bolt doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
The Electrified GV70 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’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Electrified GV70 has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist and automatically engages the brakes. Chevrolet charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Bolt and the Bolt’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert does not include automatic braking.
The Electrified GV70’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 doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Electrified GV70 and the Bolt have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee 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 and rearview cameras.
The Genesis Electrified GV70 weighs 1358 to 1385 pounds more than the Chevrolet Bolt. 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 Electrified GV70 its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 129 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Bolt has not been fully tested, yet.