BuckMkII said:When most of the excess weight is battery under the seats, not steel in front of you, I think that's a fallacy. The crash test data isn't too bad, but I was worried from the start about the parking brake lever poised right in front of my left shin, and the offset crash results bear that out:
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/nissan/leaf-4-door-hatchback/2014
The Leaf is no Mercedes or Volvo!
The only IIHS test the Leaf scored poorly in was the Small Frontal Overlap test. And for that matter, so did quite a few high end cars at the time the IIHS first did such testing, including the Mercedes C-Class, so the Leaf isn't necessarily an outlier for that time period.
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/mercedes-benz/c-class-4-door-sedan/2012
https://www.reuters.com/article/autos-safety/luxury-cars-fare-poorly-on-new-frontal-crash-test-idUSL2E8JE6TA20120814
EuroNCAP gives the Leaf its highest rating of 5 stars: https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/nissan/leaf/10939