► Euro NCAP reveals safest cars it crashed in 2024
► In some categories no car won Best in Class
► Chinese, German and Japanese firms triumph
Euro NCAP has confirmed the ‘Best in Class’ cars it tested for crash safety in 2024. It’s picked out five vehicles in particular, with the latest Mercedes-Benz E-Class rated safest overall. Notable from our European perspective is the impressive performance of several Chinese cars as well, including two Best in Class awards for the Zeekr X electric SUV.
Euro NCAP is changing the way it tests again in 2026 but says the five-star rating ‘will continue to remain a valid and trusted indicator of a new car’s safety performance.’ Best in Class awards are only judged against other vehicles tested the same year.
Below are all of the 2024 category winners.
The five safest cars according to Euro NCAP
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Euro NCAP Best in Class Executive Car – and safest overall
As well as winning the Executive Car title, the latest Mercedes E-Class has been judged Best Performer overall in Euro NCAP’s 2024 safety testing. According to Euro NCAP’s report It offers generally good protection of occupants and has an effective suite of active driver aids.
Its five-star safety score includes the following individual percentages:
- Adult Occupant: 92 per cent
- Child Occupant: 90 per cent
- Vulnerable Road User: 84 per cent
- Safety Assist: 87 per cent
The E-Class has proven surprisingly mixed in our UK road-testing, not helped by Mercedes flip-flopping on the availability of air suspension and delivering early cars with firm suspension. Our most recent experiences with the E-Class Estate, however, have proven far more satisfactory. The interior is quite the showpiece on these, too.
To find out more, read our full Mercedes-Benz E-Class review
Zeekr X
Euro NCAP Best in Class Small SUV and Electric Car
A double result for the Zeekr X, too. Based on the same architecture as recent electric Smart and smaller Volvo models, this is Geely’s effort at a compact premium electric SUV. Safety highlights include ‘full points’ for the side impact barrier test and decent vulnerable road user scores.
Here’s how the overall five-star safety score breaks down:
- Adult Occupant: 91 per cent
- Child Occupant: 90 per cent
- Vulnerable Road User: 84 per cent
- Safety Assist: 83 per cent
We didn’t really like the Zeekr X when we drove it back in 2023, giving it just two stars; we’d revisit but there are no signs it’s reaching the UK market soon. Euro NCAP highlights a number of rivals that perform almost as well, including the latest Porsche Macan, the Cupra Tavascan, MG HS, Toyota C-HR, Volvo EX30 (which is related to this Zeekr) and Xpeng G6 – plus the Deepal S07, which also isn’t available here.
To find out more, read our full Zeekr X review
Skoda Superb and Volkswagen Passat
Euro NCAP Best in Class Large Family Car – joint winners
Underlining how fundamentally identical these two cars are, Euro NCAP has jointly awarded the 2024 Large Family Car Best in Class to the VW Passat and the Skoda Superb. Their test results were rated ‘the same’, although exactly how Euro NCAP knows that is a tiny bit of a mystery as you can see from the screengrab above that it appears to have actually only tested the Volkswagen.
The tested Passat’s five-star scores (applied to both models):
- Adult Occupant: 93 per cent
- Child Occupant: 87 per cent
- Vulnerable Road User: 82 per cent
- Safety Assist: 80 per cent
A particularly good bet if you’re an adult, where it out-performed even the E-Class, not so hot for the kids. Regardless of badging, we’ve enjoyed driving both cars and rate them as solid family wagons; the Passat is literally only available as an estate now, but you can still buy a Superb hatchback.
To find out more, read our full Skoda Superb Estate review and/or our VW Passat review
Mazda CX-80
Euro NCAP Best in Class Large SUV
Mazda’s big, brooding seven-seater SUV takes home the 2024 safest large SUV accolade, besting six other entrants in that category this year and just pipping the Audi Q6 e-Tron. The Euro NCAP report suggests it’s particularly good at not injuring people you’ve run over too badly, but its active assistance – especially when it comes to detecting motorbikes – isn’t so hot.
The individual scores that make up its five-star rating:
- Adult Occupant: 92 per cent
- Child Occupant: 88 per cent
- Vulnerable Road User: 84 per cent
- Safety Assist: 79 per cent
We rather like the CX-80, which our review praises for its passenger safety, ergonomics and standard equipment. And though it’s a shame the hybrid system isn’t a little more refined, the diesel version is delightfully satisfying.
To find out more, read our full Mazda CX-80 review
Any other 2024 Euro NCAP highlights?
Euro NCAP technically recognises more categories of car, but hasn’t awarded a 2024 Best in Class where ‘too few cars’ have been tested. In the case of the Small Family Car segment, however, it wasn’t numbers but performance: no vehicle tested in 2024 was eligible for a Best rating since even the top scoring examples had a ‘red body part’ failure, ruling them out.
The safety mavens made an additional special mention of the Maxus eTerron 9 among the class of 2024. Not only was it the first electric pick-up ever tested, it too achieved a five-star rating with good scores across all four areas.
Also notable is that 20 out of the 44 vehicles crashed in 2024 were small SUVs.