For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Volvo EX30 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 Fiat 500e doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Volvo EX30 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 EX30 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 EX30 has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The 500e doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.
The EX30 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 500e 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.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The EX30 Ultra has standard CTA Auto Brake 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 EX30 has all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The 500e doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
The EX30 Ultra has a standard 360° Camera 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 EX30 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 EX30 has standard Cross Traffic Alert and Braking Intervention 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 EX30 and the 500e have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front 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 driver alert monitors.
The Volvo EX30 weighs 906 to 1188 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.