For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Volvo XC40 Recharge 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 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The XC40 Recharge’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Crosstrek Hybrid doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the XC40 Recharge and Crosstrek Hybrid have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The XC40 Recharge Ultimate 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 Crosstrek Hybrid’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 XC40 Recharge has standard Post-impact braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Crosstrek Hybrid doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
The XC40 Recharge Plus/Ultimate has a standard 360-Degree Surround View Camera to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Crosstrek Hybrid only offers a rear monitor and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the front or sides.
Both the XC40 Recharge and Crosstrek Hybrid have rear cross-traffic warning, but the XC40 Recharge has Braking Intervention (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Crosstrek Hybrid’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert doesn’t automatically brake.
Both the XC40 Recharge and the Crosstrek Hybrid have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, 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, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and driver alert monitors.
The Volvo XC40 Recharge weighs 736 to 962 pounds more than the Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
Side impacts caused 23% of all road fatalities in 2018, down from 29% in 2003, when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced its side barrier test. In order to continue improving vehicle safety, the IIHS has started using a more severe side impact test: 37 MPH (up from 31 MPH), with a 4180-pound barrier (up from 3300 pounds). The results of this newly developed test demonstrates that the Volvo XC40 Recharge is much safer than the Crosstrek Hybrid:
|
XC40 Recharge |
Crosstrek Hybrid |
Overall Evaluation |
ACCEPTABLE |
POOR |
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
129 |
245 |
Head Peak Forces |
no contact |
55 G’s |
Torso |
ACCEPTABLE |
MARGINAL |
Shoulder Deflection |
1.46 in |
1.89 in |
Shoulder Force |
290 lbs. |
357 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
1.65 in |
2.01 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
9 MPH |
10 MPH |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
|
Passenger Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Neck Compression |
89 lbs. |
178 lbs. |
Torso |
ACCEPTABLE |
MARGINAL |
Shoulder Deflection |
1.1 in |
2.09 in |
Shoulder Force |
290 lbs. |
424 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
1.5 in |
1.69 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
10 MPH |
13 MPH |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Pelvis Force |
692 lbs. |
825 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |