REPORT We witness Swedish brand crash test its newest electric vehicles and find out what the next step is for automotive safety
Tom Jervis Tom_Jervis@autovia.co.uk@thomaswjervis
ACCORDING to Newton’s third law of motion, if two objects collide, the forces they impart on each other are of equal magnitude to what was propelling them in the first place. In layman’s terms, this means that when a car stops moving – in a crash, for example – there’s quite a bit of excess energy that needs to be redistributed somewhere – especially when it comes to larger vehicles.
It’s no wonder then that so many people are concerned about how our streets are rapidly being populated by two-tonne-plus electric SUVs, with some even touching three tonnes. Only a few decades ago such heft was reserved for the most expensive of luxury cars or commercial vehicles.
Now, even Volvo’s entry-level electric SUV, the EX30, weighs in at 1,830–1,943kg, depending on specification. While there are some outliers, such as the 1,300kg Renault 5 that is considered a bit of a lightweight by EV standards, it’s safe to say that even the smallest EV is comparable in weight terms to a much larger petrol family car, with the biggest EVs approaching the limit for a standard B1 driving licence.
Volvo invited us to its state-of-the-art facility, just outside Gothenburg, Sweden, to witness a crash test between the EX30, and the 2.8-tonne behemoth that is its new range-topping seven-seat EX90.
The Volvo Safety Centre is the jewel in the Swedish maker’s crown and is based around two 100-metre-plus crash-test tracks, each able to propel a three-tonne car at speeds of more than 56mph. There’s a giant moose crash-test dummy, too, but the piece de resistance is the fact that the entire building can be rotated at the press of a button, enabling Volvo to configure a variety of scenarios.
For this test, the cars were positioned to mimic a crash at a junction; the EX30 acted as the car pulling out, travelling at 12mph, while the EX90 played the oncoming vehicle, crashing into the side of the EX30 at 31mph. In both cars were a variety of crash-test dummies, each representing a person of a different size and gender, and costing as much as 1million Euros each. That’s a reflection on the sheer number of complex sensors inside that are used to measure G-forces and potential t
