Americans keep buying more and larger trucks and SUVs. They’re heavy. Automakers and policymakers expect electric vehicles (EVs) to gradually displace many gas-powered vehicles over the next several decades. Those are heavy, too.
A group of researchers from the University of Nebraska say that poses a problem few saw coming — America may need new highway guardrails.
Researchers from the university’s Midwest Roadside Safety Facility conducted tests last fall with a Rivian R1T electric pickup and a Tesla Model S sedan.
The truck, The Associated Press reports, “tore through the metal guardrail and hardly slowed until hitting a concrete barrier yards away on the other side.” The sedan “lifted the guardrail and passed under it.”
“So far, we don’t see good vehicle-to-guardrail compatibility with electric vehicles,” says the facility’s assistant director, Cody Stolle.
Researchers first noted the problem in the 1990s when the SUV craze began.
“At the time, lightweight pickups made up 10-to-15% of the vehicle fleet,” Stolle told the AP. “Now, more than 50% of vehicles on the road are pickups and SUVs.” EVs will only exacerbate the issue.
Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit The Center for Auto Safety, told the AP, “I think what you’re seeing here is the real concern with EVs — their weight. There are a lot of new vehicles in this larger-size range coming out in that 7,000-pound range. And that’s a concern.”
Safety experts have recently begun testing to see whether their crash test equipment can handle the weight of EVs. Now, highway departments may need to raise the same concern about guardrails.
“What really needs to happen is more collaboration between transportation engineers and vehicle manufacturers,” Brooks told the AP. “That’s where you might see some real change.”
