Geely Starray EM-i completed a dual-sided side-impact crash test at France’s UTAC facility on May 23, exceeding the severity of the current Euro NCAP side-impact protocol. The Euro NCAP-accredited laboratory conducted the demonstration during the “Automotive Safety Tech Globalization & Innovation in the Smart Driving Era” summit, co-hosted by the China Automotive Engineering Research Institute (CAERI) and UTAC. Geely was the sole automaker selected to run a live safety demonstration at the event.
Highlights
- A moving deformable barrier struck the vehicle at 60 km/h, pushing it into a rigid pole positioned on the opposite side.
- The passenger cell remained intact after the dual-sided impact, according to Geely.
- The e-CALL emergency rescue system triggered automatically and doors unlocked after the collision.
- Geely reports five-star results across C-NCAP, Euro NCAP, ANCAP, ASEAN NCAP, and C-IASI for various models in its range.
How Does the Dual-Sided Test Work?
The protocol compounds two impact events into a single sequence. A moving deformable barrier strikes the side of the vehicle at 60 km/h, and the resulting motion pushes the vehicle into a rigid pole positioned on the opposite side. The far-side pole intrusion produces a second high-severity impact comparable to a side pole crash, replicating the kind of multi-vehicle chain collision that current single-impact protocols do not capture.
The sequence places concurrent demands on three vehicle systems: structural integrity of the passenger cell, the timing and accuracy of airbag deployment algorithms, and the protection envelope around the NEV battery pack.
What Happened During the Test
The Starray EM-i’s passenger cell remained intact after the dual-sided impact, the company reports. Restraint systems deployed during the sequence, the e-CALL emergency rescue system triggered automatically, and the doors unlocked following the collision — the post-crash sequence required to allow first-responder access and occupant egress.
Geely positions the demonstration as validation of its Comprehensive Safety System 2.0, which the company says extends safety design from the vehicle itself to what it describes as a “People-Vehicle-Road-Cloud-Satellite” ecosystem.
Context: Chinese Brands and European Safety Benchmarks
UTAC is an officially Euro NCAP-accredited laboratory, and the protocol used in the demonstration exceeds the current Euro NCAP side-impact requirement. The test was not a scored Euro NCAP assessment, however, and no star rating was issued as part of the demonstration.
Chinese-brand electrified vehicles have continued to register on European safety benchmarks in recent years. The XPENG P7 secured a five-star Euro NCAP rating under the program’s 2023 protocols, and Chinese-brand EVs featured prominently in the Euro NCAP 2025 Best-in-Class results announced in January.
Geely also says it has released selected safety patents into the public domain, including a one-touch window-breaking mechanism and underbody battery protection designs, and that it has opened its in-house Safety Center to outside engineers — claims that, like the crash-test outcome itself, originate with the company rather than with an independent assessor.
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