In a crash test exclusively conducted for Top Gear to the EuroNCAP procedure, a G-Wiz electric vehicle - increasingly fashionable as a way of avoiding London's congestion charge - was crushed so badly that its driver's life would have been seriously endangered.

The G-Wiz doesn't have to meet the normal EC crash rules because it is light enough and slow enough to qualify as a quadricycle rather than a car.

Even so, modern cars tend to protect occupants far better than the EC rules would imply, because the EuroNCAP test is a more detailed and tougher test and no serious manufacturer would dare put on the market something that doesn't get lots of EuroNCAP stars.

In the test undertaken for Top Gear, the front part of the G-Wiz collapsed into the driver's legs, leaving almost no space between various hard metal parts and the rigid underseat battery case.

Also, the steering wheel intruded deep into the driver's abdomen, and his head crashed into the top of the steering wheel and the windscreen. As you can see in our crash test video, the driver's door flew open while the passenger's stuck shut.

The analysis report on our crashed G-Wiz by test agency TRL revealed:

'The passenger compartment sustained significant intrusion with the driver's side A-pillar deforming rearwards by approximately 397mm at the waist beam level. At the sill level the A-pillar deformed rearwards by approximately 299mm. Intrusion of this magnitude has the potential to cause serious or life-threatening injuries to the vehicle occupants as structures such as the steering column and pedals intrude into the compartment...'

In the same week as Top Gear's EuroNCAP-type test at 64km/h, the Department of Transport ran a statutory-type 56km/h test. The results were serious enough that the Government is now seeking a review of the European regulations for quadricycles. But it isn't publishing any more details of its test yet.

GoinGreen, the company that sells the Indian-made G-Wiz in Britain, responded that: 'The G-Wiz is designed and used as a low-speed urban commuter vehicle...'

The company's 'safe driving tips' section on its website also advises G-Wiz drivers to 'avoid fast roads'.

The full story of our test is in June's edition of Top Gear magazine, on sale now.

Paul Horrell