The fully electric MINI Cooper will raise a second safety issue in 2025. After securing a five-star Euro NCAP rating in March 2025, the model has now been named “Best in Class for Safest City & Supermini of the Year 2025” by Euro NCAP.
What Euro NCAP tested and what the results mean
In the March 2025 Euro NCAP crash test publication, the model tested is listed as MINI Cooper E, a three-door city and supermini hatchback with a curb weight of 1621 kg. Euro NCAP notes that the rating is for a VIN range covering all Cooper E’s.
The published category values for the MINI Cooper Electric range in this test cycle are:
- 89% adult residents
- 87% of residents are children
- 77% vulnerable road users
- 79% Security Assistant
According to Euro NCAP, the passenger compartment remained stable in the frontal offset test, with dummy measurements indicating good protection of the knees and thighs of both front occupants. In side impact tests – including the more stringent post test – Euro NCAP recorded good protection in critical body regions and full marks in these side ratings. It also indicates that there is little control over sideward deflection (movement toward the struck side in the event of an other-side impact), while indicating that the car has a countermeasure to mitigate injury to occupants.
In a rear impact, Euro NCAP national testing of the front seats and head restraints showed good whiplash protection, and geometric analysis also showed good whiplash protection in the rear seats.
Euro NCAP also lists provisions for aftercare and rescue, including an ISO compliant rescue sheet, advanced eCall, multi-collision braking and compliant submersion control; It says MINI has demonstrated that doors and windows could be opened to allow occupants to escape in a submersion scenario.
Child occupant: high crash test performance, with information on the rear seat packaging
Euro NCAP’s child occupant tests refer to the restraint systems used in their evaluations: a Britax Römer KidFix i-Size for the 6-year-old dummy and an Osann Up for the 10-year-old dummy. It says that Euro NCAP is conducting additional tests to assess child protection because the MINI Cooper E has limited rear seat space and the legs of standard children’s dolls are inflexible. These tests demonstrated good or adequate protection for critical body areas in both frontal offset and side barrier tests.
Euro NCAP also notes that the front passenger airbag can be deactivated to enable a rear-facing child restraint system on this seat and that the system provides clear status information to the driver. It adds that child presence detection is not standard on the Cooper E.
Vulnerable road users: strong reduction values with specific deductions
In its section on vulnerable road users, Euro NCAP reports that pelvic, thigh and knee/shin protection performed well, but head protection was largely marginal or adequate, with poor results in areas such as the stiff windscreen pillars and the base/top of the window.
Regarding active safety for pedestrians and cyclists, Euro NCAP records:
- VRU impact protection: 25.8 / 36 points
- VRU Impact Mitigation: 23.2 / 27 points
- AEB pedestrian: 6.9 / 9 points
- AEB cyclists: 7.8 / 8 points
It is also noted that the “Dooring” protection for cyclists did not score points because the function is not activated by default, while the system’s response to motorcyclists achieved the highest score in the relevant tests.
Safety Assist: Lane Keeping Assist and AEB performance rank first in driver assistance scores
The Euro NCAP Safety Assist breakdown includes Lane Support: 3.0 / 3 points and AEB Car-to-Car: 8.1 / 9 points. The lane system is described as a lane departure warning with active reversing (LKA and ELK) and is operational from 60 km/h, while the forward collision warning with braking intervention via camera is operational from 5 km/h.
Euro NCAP also reports that the vehicle’s indirect driver status monitoring detects fatigue but not distraction, and that the intelligent speed limiter is not activated by default (with the speed limit assistant using camera and map support).
Overall, the safety ratings for occupant protection are 89 percent, for child safety 87 percent and for safety assistance systems 79 percent.
