Both the Mustang Mach-E and Leaf have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Mustang Mach-E 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 Leaf’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 Mustang Mach-E has standard Post Collision Braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Leaf 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 Mustang Mach-E offers all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The Leaf doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
Both the Mustang Mach-E and Leaf have rear cross-traffic warning, but the Mustang Mach-E has Cross Traffic Braking (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Leaf’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert doesn’t automatically brake.
Both the Mustang Mach-E and the Leaf have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front and rear side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras and rear cross-path warning.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E weighs 494 to 1453 pounds more than the Nissan Leaf. 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 Ford Mustang Mach-E is safer than the Leaf:
|
Mustang Mach-E |
Leaf |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Structure |
ACCEPTABLE |
MARGINAL |
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
115 |
211 |
Neck Compression |
45 lbs. |
67 lbs. |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Pelvis Force |
825 lbs. |
1093 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Passenger Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
42 |
158 |
Neck Compression |
22 lbs. |
67 lbs. |
Torso |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Shoulder Deflection |
.87 in |
1.54 in |
Shoulder Force |
268 lbs. |
335 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
.94 in |
1.38 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
4 MPH |
6 MPH |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Pelvis Force |
535 lbs. |
937 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Mustang Mach-E, with its five-star roll-over rating, is 1.2% to 2.1% less likely to roll over than the Leaf, which received a four-star rating.