Texas A&M TTI researches electric vehicle safety via crash test: ‘Jaws hit the ground’
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) is sounding the alarm on a roadway safety concern that policymakers need to pay attention to.
Electric vehicles (EVs) have been gaining popularity with some high-tech capabilities, but when it comes to a crash, researchers have suggested that current infrastructure may not make the cut to save lives.
TTI Agency Director, Greg Winfree, told KBTX one piece of this was noticing EVs weigh 20 to 30% more than their gas-powered counterparts.
“Electric vehicles present somewhat of a physics challenge,” Winfree began. “We had a suspicion, when vehicles that were electrified first started to come onto the market, that they may have issues with respect to how they interacted with roadside infrastructure that is deployed around the country.”
It’s not only the weight of the vehicle, TTI said. The battery used to power EVs creates a lower center of gravity and the front is a storage space instead of an engine compartment. These factors can all be seen in a crash test conducted at the RELLIS Campus, released this summer, showing a Tesla Model 3 smashing through a guardrail with the same force used in successful crash tests in the past.
