Expert reveals why EVs are dangerous to some drivers on the road

EVs may have a high safety ranking for their own occupants, but passengers in other cars are in danger when the two vehicles crash, experts have warned.

A professor at the University of Michigan revealed other vehicles absorb more of the crash energy in a collision due to the weight of the electric-powered car, which is are 30 percent heavier than their counterparts.

Jingwen Hu, who teaches mechanical engineering, noted that a crash between an EV and a gas-powered vehicle would have the same outcome as a heavy truck and small sedan - the latter would likely  be crushed.

Weight plays a critical role in an EV surviving a crash over other cars because it won't slow down as abruptly and has a lower rollover rate - both of which are linked to increased injuries and fatalities.

EVs are ranked as top-safety vehicles for occupants, but in a crash, it puts other cars' occupants at risk of serious injury or fatality

EVs are considered top safety picks by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) which revealed injury claims were 40 percent lower than gas-powered vehicles from 2011 to 2019, but that only applied to its own occupants.

'While the inherent weightiness of EVs offers a natural advantage in protecting occupants, it also means that other vehicles bear the burden of absorbing more crash energy in collisions with heavier EVs,' Hu wrote for The Conversation.

'This dilemma is central to the concept of 'crash compatibility,' a well-established field of safety research.

This is in part, is due to the EVs weight, which protects the vehicle in a crash, but could pose a severe disadvantage to people in other cars. 

On average, electric vehicles weigh between 20 and 50 percent more than gas-powered vehicles because the battery alone can weigh nearly as much as a small standard car. 

The National Transportation Safety Board recently highlighted that the battery pack inside an electric GMC Hummer weighs 2,900 pounds alone - roughly the same as the average Honda Civic.

EV batteries make the vehicle weigh thousands of pounds more than the gas-powered alternative. Pictured: Machines assemble an EV battery at Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama

'Vehicle weights have been going up and now when you add all of the additional battery mass that is needed for electric vehicles … we are going to have an issue with mass disparities between bigger vehicles and smaller vehicles,' Raul Arbelaez, vice president of IIHS told 10 Tampa Bay.

'The heavier something is that hits you, the more severe it's going to be on you,' he added.

There is a 50 percent increased chance in a crash becoming fatal because of the 1,000-pound disparity between EVs and standard cars, according to a 2011 study.

Yet some of today's EVs weigh several thousand pounds more like the Ford F150 EV truck, which weighs a whopping 6,000 pounds, 2,000 pounds more than the gas alternative.

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The reaction is much like when a standard, four-door sedan crashes with a truck - the car and its occupants will likely receive more injuries than the truck because of the weight difference. 

As electric vehicles become more common, concerns over their safety, not just for those who drive them but for others on the road as well, are also increasing.

Electric vehicles don't slow down as abruptly as gas-powered cars in a crash because of their heavier weight, meaning they will do more damage to the other vehicle's occupants than their own. 

It also means that the other vehicle will absorb more of the crash energy - the amount of force from the impact - when it collides with the hefty EV, increasing the severity of injuries received during the collision.

EVs also pose increased risks to bicyclists and pedestrians because they are more silent than the average car when driving at low speeds, making it difficult for walkers to hear the car approaching.

'I think it does present significant challenges for safety,' NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy told CBS News last year. 

'If you think about an impact in a crash with a lighter vehicle with a pedestrian or a cyclist or motorcyclist, it's going to have a much different outcome than we've seen in the past. Terribly tragic.' 

Experts warn that guardrails may not stop EVs during a crash because they were not designed to withstand the extra force from the vehicle's extra weight.

Nebraska's Midwest Roadside Safety Facility tested how guardrails would withstand an electric-powered vehicle crashing into it by having a nearly four-ton 2022 Rivian R1T crash into it.

The EV ripped through the metal guardrail and didn't come to a stop until it hit a concrete barrier on the other side. 

'We knew it was going to be an extremely demanding test of the roadside safety system,' Cody Stolle with the facility told News4Jax. 'The system was not made to handle vehicles greater than 5,000 pounds.' 

Carmakers will need to take steps to offset the safety issues EVs pose for other vehicles on the road like producing more lightweight batteries and materials and adding collision avoidance and auto-braking technology to all new standard vehicles.

EVs still make up only a fraction of cars sold in the US, making up only 6.5 percent of all cars sold in February alone, compared to 83.1 percent for gas-powered vehicles.