Electric Cars Are Proving Safer in a Crash

 electric cars were different in a lot of ways you know that

  also different when they crash is that a good thing or a bad things

we've all seen and probably spent way too much time

watching those fascinating crash test videos typically from

the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety it's how they figure

out who gets a top safety pick foreign but to test electric cars they had to make a change they had to basically test their rig and see if it can lug up to 9 500 pounds of vehicle down the runway into that cement block

this is because electric cars can weigh a ton you know a Hummer EV weighs over 9000 pounds they'd never tested anything like that before even a Mercedes eqs about 6000 pounds the new Volvo ex-90 electric SUV about 6200

even a Tesla Model S merely a sedan not a utility clocks in at like 4 800 pounds all of these are far above the 4 100 pounds or so that is the average weight of a non-electric car purchased in 2022 and even that 4100 is being skewed High by the huge amount of trucks and SUVs we buy take out some of those by going back a few years and bet it would be under four grand so EVS weigh lot

that's why they loaded up some old junkers lately with a whole bunch of Steel and concrete to get them up to a weight like an Eevee to make sure that their rig could haul something that heavy down the road at full speed into that cement block [Music] when they get there it's the same crashes though frontal Collision various overlap collisions roof integrity testo and all of those then evaluated on how well the car's passenger compartment held up protecting you oh by the way did you know the lihs only does crash tests up to 40 miles an hour so that amazing damage you see that's just up to 40 that should give you a sense of mortality when you think about what can happen at higher freeway speeds let's take it easy out there it can get ugly

they're also different when they crash is that a good thing or a bad thing [Music]

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the good news is EVS appear to make a crash scenario safer depending on which side of said scenario you happen to find yourself

if you're in the heavier car likely the EV you tend to get tossed around less by the other car or your EV gets accelerated less by the other lighter car either way your body receives more muted bouncing around inside your cabin soon though we're going to have EVS hitting EVs and it'll be interesting to see

bow things level out specifically iths says injury claims from drivers and

passengers who have crashes and EVS tend to run 40 percent below what is seen from the occupants of conventional cars in crashes from 2011 to 2019. now aside from all the occupant protection the crumple zones who gets bounced where inside the cabin during a crash what about the battery fire that can occur after said crash iahs has told Consumer Reports they have yet to have a battery fire or a battery thermal runaway event in any of the EVS they have crash tested that's pretty interesting now they haven't crash tested that many electric cars certainly nowhere near as many as has actually crashed in the real world and we've all seen the headlines about electric cars Catching Fire not just in crashes sometimes because of bad designs but as we saw in a recent story I did it's possibly overblown [Music] cars of all kinds catch fire in crashes whether they're battery or gasoline powered specifically iahs crunched the numbers on fatal auto crashes that involved fire between combustion cars and electric from 2009 to 2014 and found the rate between the two kinds of cars was about the same [Music] on by the way if you wonder separates a top safety pick from a top safety pick plus a lot of it comes down to technology top safety pick requires a good or a green rating on all the crash tests an advanced or Superior rating on front crash prevention Tech and an acceptable or good rating for the headlights on the car the iahs has been very big on demanding better headlight Tech lately top safety pick plus requires a good rating on every Collision test no acceptable ratings a good or acceptable headlight rating on All trim levels not just when an option is present and an advanced or Superior rating in Crash prevention both between vehicles and vehicle to pedestrian foreign

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so the bottom line is if you're thinking about an electric car and wondering if its safe the answer is generally yes unless you're on the receiving end of one hitting you if you're in the electric car you've got greater weight on your side you've got a lower heavy center of gravity that's probably going to resist rollover that's on your benefit as well you're also looking at a car that's probably one of the automaker's latest models and very likely has more or better crash prevention technology built in and we're finding that the rate of fire is certainly at least involved in fatal accidents is about