EVs being overweight in comparison to gas vehicles is causing safety issues. Despite being a cleaner and greener option, the added weight of EVs can cause problems with parking, traffic safety, garages, and roads, leading to increased fatalities in accidents.
As EVs work to replace gas vehicles the problem will only worsen since more heavier vehicles will be on the roads than the lighter gas ones soon.
The issue may seem like no big deal but it is exactly that. The EVs are not heavier marginally but rather by hundreds or even thousands of pounds. And for this heaviness, the batteries of EVs can be thanked since they are much heavier than the engines of a gas vehicle.
If you compare GMC Hummer EV with GMC Sierra then there is a difference of almost 3,000 pounds with the battery adding 2,900 pounds of weight to the former. It must be noted that both the GMC models compared above are full-sized pickup trucks.
It is not like these issues are precautionary concerns for the future. Rather, EVs being heavy have already started to create problems in the present.
Just some time back New York experienced a deadly collapse of a parking garage. Road accidents have only gone up in recent times and to make matters worse every 1,000 pounds of weight added to a vehicle increases the probability of a fatality by 47%.
Even if it wasn’t the EV that caused the recent collapse the added weight brings the question if the old roads and structures hold that much power to host an EV or not.
And no matter what the answer to this is a parallel effort of making batteries smaller and more efficient needs to take place. This would make EVs less heavy and safer.
EVs being overweight in comparison to gas vehicles is causing safety issues. Michael Brooks the acting executive director of the Center for Auto Safety said, “Unless we see incredibly rapid advances in battery design and vehicle designs, and taking smart steps like using battery energy density gains to save weight rather than extend range, or opening the doors to battery swapping.
We are likely to see many additional deaths and injuries attributable solely to the added weight of EV batteries.”
