A YouTuber has observed a crash test between a hybrid car and an EV to see how the accident affects the different types of vehicles. YouTuber Kim Java was able to pay a visit to Mercedes to see the crash test taking place.
Crash tests are an important part of any design process for a car. It is all about seeing how well the cars survive various types of impact, and whether there are things that need redesigning before they go on sale. Every new car will go through a similar process.
Java was keen to see how the big battery in an electric car survived after suffering a huge impact. Hybrids have batteries too, but not of the same size or specification. Some people have feared that huge impacts to batteries could cause them to catch fire, but crash tests can go a long way to disprove it.
In this particular test, Java was able to watch a hybrid ram into the side of an EV in an official Mercedes crash test. The results were as spectacular as you would expect, with plenty of debris flying all over the place as the cars crashed.
What Happened in the Crash Test?
“Here’s what I want to know: What happens to that giant battery when a car slams right into it?” said Java in her video. The Mercedes test facility is an impressive one, so it makes perfect sense for her to visit this particular location. The hybrid Mercedes slammed into the side of the EV, replicating a T-bone accident, one of the most common accidents that can occur on the roads.
“Wow, I can feel it in my body; the impact was so hard!” said Java in her video. Having watched the accident from above, Java then went down to have a look at the two cars and to see which had come off worse and which had come off better. Java saw that the glass on the hybrid had remained intact, but the side impact had destroyed the glass on the EV.
“A lot of that has to do with these doors not necessarily having a crumple zone. Having this ultra-high-strength steel that goes along the B-Pillar and the A-Pillar to protect this side of the body is so important,” said the YouTuber. For the most part, however, the EV held up well, certainly better than a similar car would have around 10+ years ago. But there was one thing that really caught the eye of the YouTuber.
The Speed of the Impact Caught the YouTuber’s Attention
Java kept coming back to the speed at which the hybrid was travelling when it hit the side of the electric car. “Wow, I can feel it in my body; the impact was so hard!” she said in the video. The impact speed was only 35mph, which isn’t very fast when you think about it. So it does make you wonder how bad the damage could be if the car was T-boned in a much higher-speed accident.
There was, however, no fire or horrible damage caused by the impact to the electric car’s powertrain components. EV powertrains and batteries are very well built and stress-tested to handle some severe impacts, so it isn’t a surprise to see that nothing untoward happened after the crash test.