There was a time when the Tesla Model S was considered to be the safest car on sale in America. That time was almost four years ago, and now, in 2017, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says both the Toyota Prius Prime and the Chevrolet Volt are safer than both Tesla's flagship and BMW's electric car.

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The IIHS is looking at a small overlap frontal crash, a moderate overlap frontal crash, side impact, roof strength, the head restraints, headlights and advanced front crash prevention to see who's worthy of their Top Safety + score. The Chevrolet Volt and the Toyota Prius Prime are.

On the other hand, the standard Tesla Model S has a problematic seatbelt, which is something Tesla is going to fix later this year. More worryingly, the IIHS also found that the most powerful version, the P100D is too heavy for its roof to handle, which can become a risk if you manage to roll it over during one of those ludicrous runs. That's very hard to do with a car that has such a low center of gravity as a Tesla, but not impossible.

The BMW i3 lost some points for its seats, which won't offer enough head support in case of a rear collision. The Chevrolet Volt doesn't have this problem. Nor does the Prius Prime, and while car enthusiasts can ignore Toyota's hybrid all day long, if its good enough to be the car that impresses the IIHS the most, it's probably worth a second look as a family car.

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Update. Tesla has issued the following statement:

"We proactively develop updates and aggressively implement changes onto the production line in record time any time there is a substantial benefit to customer safety. One of the improvements recently introduced in January 2017 specifically addresses the "Acceptable" (or second highest) rating that the Model S achieved in the small overlap frontal crash test, and we expect new tests to yield the highest possible rating ("Good" rating) in the crashworthiness category.

Additionally, IIHS tested a vehicle that was in transition with new Autopilot hardware, but without the new software that enables Automatic Emergency Braking. In the coming weeks, Automatic Emergency Braking will be deployed via a free over-the-air software update, and IIHS will be testing a new vehicle. We expect to receive the highest possible rating in every category, making Model S eligible for the IIHS Top Safety Pick award."

That's reassuring, yet it's curious that Tesla didn't mention a need to fix the roof on the P100D.

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