For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Chevrolet Equinox EV 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 Fiat 500e doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Equinox EV are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The 500e doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Chevrolet Equinox EV has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The 500e doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Equinox EV has standard Reverse Automatic Braking that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The 500e doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Equinox EV has all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The 500e doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
The Equinox EV has a standard HD Surround Vision to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The 500e 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.
The Equinox EV 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 500e’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Equinox EV has standard Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Rear Cross Traffic Braking automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Fiat charges extra for Rear Cross Path Detection on the 500e and the 500e’s Rear Cross Path Detection does not include automatic braking.
Both the Equinox EV and the 500e have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, front wheel drive, 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 driver alert monitors.
The Chevrolet Equinox EV weighs 1971 to 2089 pounds more than the Fiat 500e. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts. Crosswinds also affect lighter cars more.