Preliminary test crashes indicate the nation's guardrail system can't handle heavy electric vehicles

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Preliminary test crashes indicate the nation’s guardrail system can’t handle heavy electric vehicles

BY MARGERY A. BECK
Updated 10:56 AM EST, January 31, 2024

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Under an overcast sky last fall, engineers with a University of Nebraska road safety facility watched as a electric-powered pickup truck hurtled toward a guardrail installed on the facility’s testing ground on the edge of the local municipal airport.

The test crash was to see how the guardrail — the same type found along tens of thousands of miles of roadway in the United States — would hold up against electric vehicles that can weigh thousands of pounds more than the average gas-powered sedan.

It came as little surprise when the nearly 4-ton 2022 Rivian R1T tore through the metal guardrail and hardly slowed until hitting a concrete barrier yards away on the other side.

“We knew it was going to be an extremely demanding test of the roadside safety system,” said Cody Stolle with the university’s Midwest Roadside Safety Facility. “The system was not made to handle vehicles greater than 5,000 pounds.”

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/electric-vehicles-crash-test-guardrails-nebraska-3ec299a7ad87d0f63a6dd9357f663fce

[brush]

1. At what angle did the EV pickup hit the guard rail, head on or at a glancing angle which is how...

how most accidents involving guard rails happen. Also the OP compares a massive pickup's impact with that of an IC sedan? That's a comparison that doesn't give accurate results.

[SarahD]

4. Probably another propaganda article.

There is an effort underway to scare people away from electric vehicles.

[Think. Again.]

6. Bingo.

[SarahD]

2. Bigger is better!

We have been buying bigger, heavier vehicles for some time now. Adding a thousand pounds of battery is just another little step on the journey to More is Betterland.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. But wait, there's more...

The concern over the weight of electric vehicles stretches beyond vehicle-to-vehicle crashes and compatibility with guardrails, Brooks said. The extra weight will affect everything from faster wear on residential streets and driveways to vehicle tires and infrastructure like parking garages.

“A lot of these parking structures were built to hold vehicles that weighed 2,000 to 4,000 pounds — not 10,000 pounds,” he said.

Scary. I wouldn't want to be in a parking deck filled with these vehicles and built for one set of specs but affected by these new weight numbers.

If we think condo/apartment collapses are devastating I would imagine that the amount of suffering from a parking deck collapse would be comparable.

Lots to think about.

Thanks for sharing this, Eugene. ❤️

[Think. Again.]

7. Current mid- full- size SUVs...

...that are so common and popular now weigh between 4000 and 6000 pounds already which is about what the average EV weighs.

So unless Electric Hummers become the most popular car everywhere, I suspect most construction specifications are safe.

[ramen]

5. How much does a semi truck weigh?

https://www.onsitetruckaz.com/post/how-much-does-a-semi-truck-weigh-ultimate-guide-2022#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20it%27s%20a,weight%20cannot%20exceed%2080%2C000%20pounds.

"Tractor-trailers typically weigh around 80,000 pounds when fully loaded. If a trailer is empty, it will weigh approximately 35,000."

[Old Crank]

8. More info would have been nice.

Most people don't hit guard rails head on. They tend to be some angle, probably less than 45 degrees..
I can see the issue with the lower center of gravity and wedging under the rails. The rails are higher than the used to be before more than half the vehicles purchased were trucks. They raised the rails to reduce the risk of them from rolling over the guard rail becasue of the higher center of gravity these trucks/SUV had.

As for road wear the answer might be a yearly tax on your car registration based on vehicle weight and your yearly mileage total.