For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Volkswagen ID.4 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.
The ID.4’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The 500e doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Volkswagen ID.4 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.
The ID.4 has a standard Automatic Post-Collision Braking System, which automatically applies 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 ID.4 has standard Maneuver 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 ID.4 Pro has all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The 500e doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
The ID.4 Pro S Plus has a standard Area View 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 ID.4 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 ID.4 has standard Rear Traffic Alert and automatically engage the brakes. 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 ID.4 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 Volkswagen ID.4 weighs 1365 to 1925 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.
The Volkswagen ID.4 achieved a “Top Safety Pick” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for the 2024 model year. This recognition was based on its impressive performance in the small overlap frontal crash test, updated side impact crash test, headlight evaluations, and pedestrian crash prevention testing. The 500e has not yet been evaluated by the IIHS for 2024.