√Crash labs face a heavy new challenge with electric vehicles

A shocking world-first crash test with a pick-up loaded to 4100kg shows the impact of future heavyweight electric vehicles.

A dramatic crash test involving a heavily-laden Ford F-150 pick-up in the US has highlighted the challenges facing crash test labratories around the world as new electric vehicles hit the road.

Electric vehicles weigh up to 50 per cent more than their petrol equivalents because of the heavy battery packs.

This has created a new dilemma for crash labs that to date have not needed to test such heavy vehicles.

To better understand the challenges ahead, a road safety body in the US loaded up an old pick-up to simulate a 4100 kilogram vehicle – the approximate weight of the next generation of electric utes – and then put it through a full-frontal crash at 64km/h.

It was the heaviest vehicle to date tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the USA.

The test was run to confirm whether the IIHS laboratory would be able to cope with upcoming electric SUV and commercial vehicles, including the ability to accelerate them to the 64km/h threshold used for frontal barrier tests within its crash facility in the state of Virginia.

The IIHS said it believes future electric vehicles will continue to get heavier – they already pass the four-tonne mark.

The GMC Hummer EV in the USA already tips the scales at 4110 kilograms and the Audi E-Tron Sportback sold in Australia weighs up to 2565kg.

Video of the test shows a dramatic crumpling of the Ford F-150’s nose, while the extra weight in the load bed – it was ballasted with steel plates and concrete blocks – flies forward and crashes into the cabin.

There has not been a similar crash test yet by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) in Australia, although the organisation said it has been considering the increasing weight of vehicles for several years.

“ANCAP has been assessing vehicle compatibility in our frontal offset crash test since 2020, and this part of our assessment specifically evaluates the effect the design and mass of vehicles has on their ‘collision partners’,” the CEO of ANCAP, Carla Hoorweg, told Drive.

“The less compatible, or more ‘aggressive’ vehicles will generally receive a higher score penalty in this test [up to -4.00 points], and this aspect of our assessment will again increase in stringency next year where the potential penalty will be up to -8.00 points.

“Electric vehicles do generally bring with them increased mass which can be a positive or negative depending on the type of crash.

“What we have seen in some of our recent testing of EVs is that the absence of a traditional petrol or diesel-powered engine at the front of the vehicle can see improved levels of crash protection offered to occupants of the EV,” she said.

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