AssetID: 40033130
Headline: Jaw-Dropping Car Crash Footage & Pictures Prove Electric Vehicles Are Just As Safe As Conventional Cars
Caption: These horrifying – yet jaw-dropping – new pictures and video demonstrate that electric vehicles are just as safe as traditional cars powered by combustion engines. The German Motor Vehicle Inspection Association, known as DEKRA in German, wanted to examine whether a battery fire would break out on impact, thereby making it dangerous for emergency services to deal with the aftermath. DEKRA said the collisions with a pole simulated different scenarios of a tree impact, and the speeds were far beyond those that are common in standard crash tests. In the joint research project by DEKRA and traffic accident researchers at the University Medical Center Göttingen, a Renault Zoe and three Nissan Leaf were crashed in the DEKRA crash test centre in Neumünster. The conclusion of the accident researchers was the tested electric vehicles are comparable to comparable conventionally driven vehicles in safety. They concluded that high-voltage systems reliably shut down in the event of an accident, the damage was comparable to conventionally powered vehicles, and even with strong deformation of the drive battery there was no fire breakout. In three of the four crash scenarios, the experts let electric vehicles collide laterally with the pole: the Renault Zoe with 60 km/h, the Nissan Leaf (production series 2010 - 2017) with 60 and additionally 75 km/h. In addition, in the fourth scenario, the frontal impact of a Nissan Leaf at 84 km/h. "The damage patterns from the crash tests are comparable to those on conventionally powered vehicles," says DEKRA accident researcher Markus Egelhaaf. "The high-voltage system of the electric vehicles was shut down reliably during the crash. And despite massive deformation of the drive battery, there was no fire." The experts said the lateral tree impact at such speeds would be hard to survive. "But that applies to every type of car, regardless of the type of drive. The big manufacturers of series electric vehicles have managed to achieve at least the same level of safety that we know from combustion vehicles." Not for nothing, both tested models in the Euro NCAP rating have each reached the maximum five stars. "Our experiments confirm that there is no reason to be less confident in the electric vehicle than in the conventional car."
Keywords: science; tech; technology
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