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 Kia Niro EV doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
Both the Ioniq 5 and Niro EV 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 Niro EV’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 Ioniq 5 has all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The Niro EV doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
The Ioniq 5 Limited has a standard Surround View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Niro EV only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
Both the Ioniq 5 and the Niro EV have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact 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 Hyundai Ioniq 5 achieved a “Top Safety Pick” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for the 2024 model year. This recognition was based on its impressive performance in the small overlap frontal crash test, updated side impact crash test, headlight evaluations, and pedestrian crash prevention testing. The Niro EV has not yet been evaluated by the IIHS for 2024.