The entire car is an egg-like steel safety shell to protect the passengers. The engine and other hardware is below the level of the passengers. It's designed so that even the wheels are part of the energy-absorbing crush zones. In a test I saw a hard frontal collision cause damage to the rear of the car (transferring energy around the passenger compartment). There's more, but let's just say that a lot of engineering went into making this a safe car, as safe as most larger compact cars.
I'll take your word for it, aR. Couldn't pay me enough to own one.