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Tesla Model 3, Model X take top honors in Euro NCAP Best in Class Cars 2019 List
The European New Car Assessment Programme or more popularly known as Euro NCAP published its “Best of the Best of 2019” list and the Tesla Model X and Model 3 are among the Best In Class for 2019.
The Tesla Model 3 was named the best vehicle in the Large Family Car category and shared the spotlight with the BMW 3 Series, despite edging out the Bavarian sedan in Safety Assist by receiving a score of 94 versus BMW’s 76. Euro NCAP also awarded the Tesla Model X all-electric SUV as the best Large Off-Road vehicle, beating out the SEAT Tarraco which took home second place.
The awards come with prestige as Euro NCAP is one of the most respected car safety watchdogs, providing consumers with an independent and realistic safety assessment of some of Europe’s most popular vehicles. Established in 1997 and modeled after the car assessment program of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the program has since served as a catalyst when it comes to improving vehicle safety. The Euro NCAP overall safety rating was introduced in 2009 and evaluates the safety of the vehicle based on four areas: Adult Occupant Protection, Child Occupant Protection, Pedestrian Protection, and Safety Assist.
The Euro NCAP safety tests simulate possible real-life accidents that may cause serious injuries or even death of vehicle occupants. For example, the frontal impact test simulates accidents such as head-on collisions where the vehicle’s structure, how its parts safely absorb different crash forces, and whether the vehicle’s design leaves enough space in the passenger compartment during big collisions are looked into because these factors can spell the difference between life and death. Euro NCAP also tests vehicles to see if their child restraint systems are properly designed and can keep the child safe during vehicular accidents.
The category on Vulnerable Road User tests how other users such as pedestrians and cyclists are at risk of injuries when they are hit by the vehicles undergoing testing. The safety watchdog also scores driver-assist technologies that help lower the risk of accidents on the road and also mitigate injuries.
As the Model 3 and Model X rule their respective categories in the Best In Class of 2019 list just helps prove that Tesla is on the right path in building safe vehicles from the ground up, plus developing technologies such as its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features that push vehicle safety to the next level.
To be included in Euro NCAP Best in Class Cars Of 2019 list is a feather in any automotive manufacturer’s cap. It means the vehicles are among the safest on the road today.
In mid-2019, the car safety watchdog awarded the Tesla Model 3 sedan 5 stars in all of its safety categories, which set the bar higher for vehicles in its class.
“Tesla has done a great job of playing the structural benefits of an electric vehicle to its advantage. The Tesla Model 3 achieved one of the highest Safety Assist scores we have seen to date,” said Thatcham Research head of research Matthew Avery.
The Model 3 has shown off its safety features in the real world, most recently protecting a driver after an SUV landed on top of a Model 3 during a multi-car pile-up in China.
The Model 3’s bigger sibling, the Model X, is also considered a champ by Euro NCAP as it awarded Tesla’s flagship SUV a 5-Star Safety Rating in December.
Other Best In Class for 2019 winners include Mercedes-Benz CLA for the Small Family Car category with Mazda 3 as its runner-up. The Subaru Forester ruled the Small Off-Road/MPV category with the Volkswagen T-Cross and the Mazda CX-30 sharing the second spot. The best in the Supermini category was given to the Audi A1 and Renault Clio with the Ford Puma given the runner-up honors.
Check out the video footage below showing Euro NCAP’s Best In Class Cars of 2019:
Elon Musk
Elon Musk gives his most telling Tesla-SpaceX merger conversation yet
Elon Musk hinted a Tesla-SpaceX merger could be coming, and Wall Street is taking notice.
Elon Musk gave his clearest signal yet that Tesla and SpaceX could eventually combine, telling the All-In Summit in Los Angeles that the two companies’ deepening collaboration makes the question worth asking. Sawyer Merritt first surfaced the highlight on X Tuesday.
Asked directly why Tesla and SpaceX remain separate given how closely they already work together, Musk told hosts at the summit: “Great question there. With all this collaboration, on so many levels, who can imagine what action one might take when there’s so much close collaboration in so many areas.” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, who joined Musk on stage, added that SpaceX personnel have already moved into xAI to fill leadership and engineering gaps, saying the businesses are integrating “faster than I thought,” though “not fully integrated yet,”
The comments landed on top of merger speculation that has been building on Wall Street for months. JPMorgan has called a tie-up “strategically coherent on paper,” pointing to overlapping ambitions in AI, robotics, energy, transportation and space. Jefferies went further, estimating Musk could retain roughly 55.3 percent voting control in a deal structured without a premium, a scenario that would still leave room for Tesla shareholders to come out ahead. On Kalshi, traders now put the odds of a merger before 2028 at 66 percent.
Tesla’s stake in SpaceX, still under one percent, traces back to its earlier investment in xAI, which converted to SpaceX equity after SpaceX absorbed the AI company. The two are also jointly building Terafab, a chip facility in Austin meant to serve both Tesla’s AI computing needs and SpaceX’s satellite ambitions. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has stood by a 2027 merger timeline for months, and Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest recently floated a similar case, an idea Musk pushed back on directly at the time.
Another Tesla SpaceX merger prediction by ARK Invest has Elon Musk talking
The timing adds another layer. Tesla has scheduled an October 1 unveiling for its next generation Roadster at a venue near SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas test site, using the phrase “Go for launch” in its promotional material. Both stocks dipped roughly 2 percent Monday before recovering slightly in premarket trading Tuesday, with SpaceX shares up about 0.4 percent and Tesla essentially flat.
Musk stopped short of confirming anything is in motion. But unlike his past denials of a corporate restructuring, this response didn’t rule one out, and it came with Shotwell sitting next to him describing an integration that’s already underway.
The Tesla Roadster unveiling is getting hyped up by the company’s CEO Elon Musk, who has been a big reason the product has such high expectations due to delayed timelines and a constant need to make it even more insane than before.
Tesla announced on September 12 that it would officially unveil the Roadster in Waco, Texas, on October 1, ending years of patience for fans and reservation holders who have waited for the all-electric supercar to enter production since 2017.
Musk has said that this event will be well worth the wait on several occasions, and last year on the Joe Rogan Experience, he said that there should be a closing chapter to supercars- the end of cars that aren’t focused on safety.
He said:
“Whether it’s good or bad, it will be unforgettable. My friend Peter Thiel once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars. I think if Peter wants a flying car, he should be able to buy one. I think it has a shot at being the most memorable product unveil ever. This is some crazy technology in this car. Let’s just put it this way: if you took all the James Bond cars and combined them, it’s crazier than that.”
Musk’s teases have continued, and now that the event is roughly two weeks away, it seems like Roadster is finally going to show up and blow some minds:
It’s out of this world
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 13, 2026
Excitement guaranteed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 13, 2026
Tesla has definitely dragged out the development of the Roadster, but there is a good reason for it.
Tesla has been working on many other projects, most notably self-driving efforts to increase passenger safety, and those simply took priority over the Roadster, a low-volume, high-performance sports car that has a lightning-fast acceleration rate of 0-60 MPH in just 1.1 seconds, could potentially fly, and contributes very little to the company’s mission.
However, many people have the Roadster on pre-order through the referral program or with their own money, and it is time that Tesla delivers on that.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s Boring Company has big plans for Las Vegas by year’s end
Elon Musk’s Boring Company says Vegas Loop stations will double by year end once again.
The Boring Company says the Vegas Loop’s station count will double by the end of the year, tying the target to a hiring push for drivers and operations managers in Las Vegas. “Vegas Loop is getting bigger – the station count will double by end of year!” the company wrote in a post on X, attaching listings for a Loop driver and a senior Loop operations manager.
The number checks out against what’s already public, with the Vegas Loop currently running 14 operational stations, while the Boring Company’s own project page lists 28 as the target for the end of 2026.
Vegas Loop is getting bigger – the station count will double by end of year!
Urgently hiring exceptional and enthusiastic Drivers and Ops Managers.
Apply here!
Driverhttps://t.co/ZUPXBYTONb
Senior Loop Ops Managerhttps://t.co/mV6V22V8jH pic.twitter.com/IZ9FqIw8WY
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) September 14, 2026
Much of that growth is tied to tunnels that are already built and waiting on an opening date. A roughly two-mile dual tunnel system under Paradise Road, connecting Westgate to a planned station at 4744 Paradise Road, is expected to open in stages over the coming weeks, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority chief executive Steve Hill told the Review-Journal last week. New stations at 4744 Paradise, Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, and the former Gordon Biersch site would come online with it, several of them built to speed up rides to Harry Reid International Airport ahead of Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Clark County entitled Vegas Loop for 123 stations after approving 19 more in August, as Teslarati reported at the time. Entitlement and construction move at different speeds on this project, so county approval alone does not guarantee a station opens on any particular schedule.
Clark County approved 18 additional stations back in 2023, part of a plan that pushed the system’s target to 69 stations across 65 miles, doubling the network on paper for the first time. The target kept climbing after that, to roughly 93 stations by the end of that year and 104 by last year, before August’s vote pushed it to 123. This week’s announcement is the first time that doubling language has been attached to stations actually running rather than stations merely approved on a county map.
Ridership gives some sense of what a denser network could carry. Boring Company executive Mike Baier said in July that the Vegas Loop already moves around 40,000 passengers on busy convention days, a total that tops most light rail systems in the country despite the system running on a fraction of its planned tunnel mileage. Company leadership has projected ridership could triple or quadruple once the airport connector tunnels fully open.
Boring Company did not say which stations beyond those already under construction would open by year end, or whether the hiring push points to a fleet expansion alongside the new stops.
Elon Musk gives his most telling Tesla-SpaceX merger conversation yet
Tesla Roadster unveiling is getting hyped up by Elon Musk
