Guardrail System Fails to Withstand Heavy Electric Vehicles, Crash Tests Show

As electric vehicles gain popularity, their increased weight poses a challenge to the nation's roadside safety system, prompting urgent calls for updated infrastructure.

• Preliminary crash tests conducted by the University of Nebraska indicate that the nation's guardrail system may not be able to handle the impact of heavy electric vehicles.
• Electric vehicles, which typically weigh 20% to 50% more than gas-powered vehicles due to their large batteries, were seen to easily crash through steel highway guardrails in the tests.
• The concern arises as the popularity of electric vehicles grows, leading to a disparity in weight between new battery-powered vehicles and lighter gas-powered ones.
• While electric vehicles appear to offer superior protection to their occupants, they may pose a danger to occupants of lighter vehicles in the event of a collision.
• More testing, involving computer simulations and crash tests of more electric vehicles, is planned to determine how to engineer roadside barriers that can handle both lighter gas-powered vehicles and heavier electric vehicles.

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