The Tesla S won a five-star rating in every test category, achieved by only one percent of all current car models in the US. The Volvo S60 is one of them, but the Tesla S even beat that.
One of the critical elements is how effective a front crumple zone is in a car, and because the rear-drive Tesla's electric motor is located close to the car's rear axle, the second 'boot' up front where an engine normally is acts as a very long such zone.
For side impacts, the Tesla uses a 43-years-old technology to spread the crash load ... one used by the Apollo Lunar Module.
The car refused to roll over in the NHTSA's normal testing procedures because the underfloor placing of the battery gives the Tesla S a very low centre of gravity.
The NHTSA crash tests differ in detail with but are analogous to the Euro NCAP crash tests used on this side of the Atlantic.
