Safety experts are voicing concerns about the increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the road, stating the heavier vehicles could “absolutely” lead to more vehicular deaths.
Electric vehicles weigh thousands of pounds more than their gas-powered counterparts due to the weight of the batteries that power them. Though that extra weight provides more protection for the passengers inside an electric vehicle, according to tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the same doesn’t necessarily hold true for other drivers or pedestrians sharing the road with these hefty cars.
“It’s simple laws of physics,” Raul Arbelaez, vice president of the IIHS Vehicle Research Center, told CBS News. “The crash for the other vehicle, when you are heavier, is going to be more severe.”
Arbalaez wrote about his concerns in March 2023, discussing his experiences in pitting electric vehicles against their gas-powered alternatives in multiple tests. The tests raised concerns about the safety of drivers and passengers in gas-powered vehicles when pitted against the heavier EVs and suggested that EVs could pose a greater threat to cyclists and pedestrians.
“It’s not clear that all EVs have braking performance that matches their additional mass,” Arbalez wrote. “If the extra weight leads to longer stopping distances, that will likely lead to an increase in pedestrian and cyclist deaths, which already have been on the rise in recent years.”
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy echoed Arbalaez’s fears, telling CBS News that EVs do “present significant challenges for safety.”
As electric vehicles become more common, concerns over their safety, not just for those who drive them but for others on the road as well, are also increasing. The weight of EVs and their batteries can make collisions with lighter cars more dangerous. https://t.co/Fp8WyBNni4
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 14, 2023
“If you think about an impact in a crash with a lighter vehicle with a pedestrian or a cyclist or motorcyclists, it’s going to have a much different outcome than we’ve seen in the past. Terribly tragic,” she said.
“You take a very large vehicle, say a 10,000-pound vehicle, against that mid-size SUV. You have now converted that from a 40 mph crash for that smaller vehicle all the way to about a 58 mph crash,” Arbelaez explained to CBS News. “And what crash research tells us is that once you go above, say, the standard 40 mph crash severity, to 55 and higher, safety for those occupants in those vehicles goes down dramatically. The occupant compartment starts to collapse in ways that we aren’t designing for.” (RELATED: ‘Sustainable’ Electric Cars Are Getting Junked Over Minor Damage)
Homendy added that while she thinks it’s “great” that automakers and government officials are focused on air quality, safety needs to be a priority too. “The two are not mutually exclusive. We should aim for improved safety and improved air quality,” Homendy argued, according to CBS News.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade association representing automakers, argued that they are focusing on safety, with many vehicles already equipped with automatic emergency braking (AEB) technology that was designed to help save lives and prevent injuries, according to CBS News.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a proposal in May that would require AEB systems on all passenger cars and light trucks, stating the measure would dramatically reduce crashes associated with pedestrians and rear-end crashes.