by VINCENZO BORGOMEO
Preliminary tests conducted by a University of Nebraska highway safety research facility and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are clear: The nation's roadway guardrails are no match for new electric cars. The problem is the weight: the barriers were not designed to withstand the impact of such cars.
Research
The University of Nebraska study starts from the fact that electric vehicles generally weigh 20% to 50% more than gasoline vehicles. And that in some cases, that of flagships, the weight of the batteries alone reaches 800 kg. But not only that: electric cars also have lower centers of gravity. And so, precisely because of these two elements, the guardrails mounted on US roads can do little to prevent electric vehicles from going over the barriers.
The first test was done last fall: engineers at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility in Nebraska watched in horror as a Rivian pickup hurtled towards a guardrail installed on the facility's test field, on the edge of the local municipal airport, smashing through it like if it were made of cardboard and then hit a concrete barrier a few meters away on the other side of the road. These are dynamic behaviors of trucks, not normal cars.
The alarm goes off
The university thus published the results of that crash test and other tests and in the USA the alarm has now been raised about the weight disparity between the new battery-powered vehicles and the lighter petrol-powered ones. And not only for impacts on guardrails, but also for safety more generally in the event of collisions between heavy and light cars.
Rivian's reaction was immediate, pointing out that its pick-up used in the tests received the 2023 Top Safety Pick+ award, the highest level award awarded by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Yes, but the main purpose of guardrails, which are found along tens of thousands of kilometers of roadway, is to prevent cars from leaving the road, especially in dangerous areas, such as on bridges and waterways, near the edges of cliffs and ravines and on rocky terrain, where injury and death are much more likely in an off-road accident.
“Last resort systems”
“Guardrails are a sort of last resort safety device”, explains Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety (which, remember, is a non-profit association), “and if they become useless it becomes a problem” .
Several Tesla sedans were also used in the crash tests and some of these raised the guardrail and passed under it. But it's only the beginning: in the USA it is now a phobia and further tests are now planned to understand how to design road barriers that minimize the effects of accidents with heavy electric cars.
“Right now, electric vehicles account for about 10% of new vehicles sold, so we have some time,” Stolle said. “But as electric vehicles continue to gain market share, the problem will become bigger and bigger.” The race has begun.
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