The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has released a new video comparing the crash test performance of the Tesla Cybertruck and the Ford F-150 Lightning, with Tesla’s pickup coming out ahead.
According to the IIHS, the Cybertruck earned a “Good” rating in the updated moderate overlap front crash test, while the F-150 Lightning received a “Poor” rating. “The biggest concerns in the downgrade were that rear seated occupant,” said Raul Arbelaez, Vice President of the IIHS Vehicle Research Center.
“What we saw was one, the side curtain airbag got hung up on the B-pillar. We had some high neck tension on that rear dummy, some elevated chest injury measures, and some submarining of the seatbelt, which can cause soft tissue injury in the abdominal region. All of those added up to a Poor rating, which is certainly not something you want to see in a modern vehicle.”
The Cybertruck outperformed the Lightning in several key categories, including rear passenger injury measures (head/neck and thigh), driver injury measures (leg/foot), rear passenger restraints and dummy kinematics, and seat belts & child restraints (LATCH ease of use). “The Cybertruck was a different story. It performed really well. Good enough to earn a Good rating in this very challenging test,” Arbelaez added.
Elsewhere, both trucks performed well in pedestrian crash avoidance tests. The Cybertruck avoided every crash scenario during both daytime and nighttime testing, while the F-150 Lightning earned a “Good” overall rating but was unable to avoid every impact.
One drawback for Tesla’s pickup was headlights, where it received a “Poor” rating for excessive glare, something the IIHS noted should be relatively easy to fix. The Lightning, by comparison, earned an “Acceptable” rating for headlights.
This latest result builds on the Cybertruck’s growing safety record. Back in July, the vehicle impressed in IIHS crash test footage, while in August, it secured five-star safety ratings for both driver and passenger from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). That was on top of the overall five-star safety rating the Cybertruck earned from the NHTSA earlier this year.
Check out the full IIHS comparison video below:
