EV Crash Test by UNL’s Midwest Roadside Safety Facility



In research sponsored by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Midwest Roadside Safety Facility is investigating the safety and military defense questions raised by the burgeoning number of electric vehicles on the nation’s roadways.

A crash test performed on a guardrail on October 12, 2023 highlighted the concern. At 60 mph, the 7,000-plus-pound, 2022 Rivian R1T truck tore through a commonly used guardrail system with little reduction in speed. Read more here: https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/nebraska-experts-weigh-highway-safety-and-electric-vehicles/

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48 thoughts on “EV Crash Test by UNL’s Midwest Roadside Safety Facility

  1. While I like that this “research” went after EVs to get cash and clicks, drive an equivalent ICE vehicle at those barriers and get the same results…without the cab and clicks

  2. I would like to know how often vehicles hit highway barriers at highway speeds while driving PERPENDICULAR to the highway. Also a Ram 3500 can top 9,000lbs, and be even taller. Where was the outrage for those?

  3. Those specific curved barriers cause vehicles to climb up them when hit on angles, but they usually don't go all the way over them. It’s the deflection of energy that's safest. The newer, taller, steeper, permanent barriers are safer. My brother hit one on a curve in a late 90s Grand Am and his driver's wheel climbed up on top of those barriers. All he had to fix was the wheel and a few steering rods.

  4. Who hits concrete barriers head on? I try to drive parallel to the barriers and stay in my lane. Seriously, it would take a lot and be rare to go head on perpendicularly. The barrier is NOT connected in a long chain, like on the highways so, it gives way lessening the impact when in reality it wouldn't. Look up Smart car hits barrier head on, that's impressive.

  5. And then, the battery compartment gets compromised, catches fire, possibly killing the occupants that can’t escape and burns for 3-days straight.

  6. So we better get busy banning the much more numerous 80k lbs semis on the road, or the myriad of medium duty trucks that weigh anywhere between ~3800 lbs and 80k lbs.
    This is just Luddite FUD meant to push us away from EVs.
    If vehicle weight really mattered to all these anti-EV folks, they'd be banning the pickups and SUVs they drive now, that weigh well upward of 3800 lbs.

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