For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 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.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 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 Ioniq 5 and Bolt have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Ioniq 5 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.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Ioniq 5 Limited has standard Parking Collision Avoidance Assist 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 Ioniq 5 has all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The Bolt doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
The Ioniq 5 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 Ioniq 5 has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning and Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. 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 Ioniq 5’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 Ioniq 5 and the Bolt have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front and rear 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 and available around view monitors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Hyundai Ioniq 5 is safer than the Chevrolet Bolt:
|
Ioniq 5 |
Bolt |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Chest Movement |
.7 inches |
1.1 inches |
Abdominal Force |
131 lbs. |
132 lbs. |
Hip Force |
261 lbs. |
297 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
Hip Force |
741 lbs. |
978 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
7 inches |
10 inches |
HIC |
252 |
330 |
Spine Acceleration |
35 G’s |
50 G’s |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Ioniq 5 is 1.4% less likely to roll over than the Bolt.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has achieved the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) highest rating of “Top Safety Pick Plus” for the 2024 model year. This distinction is based on its exceptional performance in IIHS’ rigorous battery of safety tests. Specifically, it earned a “Good” rating in the latest, more stringent moderate overlap front crash test, a “Good” result in the updated side impact test, and an “Acceptable” score in the revised pedestrian crash prevention test. The Bolt has not yet been fully evaluated by the IIHS for 2024.