TAMPA, Fla. — Tesla owner Damon Lister loves everything about his electric vehicle. He had no problem showing off the interior of his Telsa.
“Look at this! You just hit here, and then take a look at the computer screen,” said Lister as he showed us the clean lines and added technology the car has. He’s had it for a year now and doesn’t look back.
“It’s so smooth. It’s so zippy around town,” Lister said.
He’s not the only one that feels this way. It’s why our roads are loaded with more and more electric vehicles.
“We see a lot of Teslas. We kind of do a little wave when we pass each other,” Lister said.
But it’s also why the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln recently conducted a first-of-its-kind crash test of an EV pickup truck to better understand whether guardrails are prepared for the growing number of EVs. The test involved a Rivian R1T truck and a Tesla Model 3 sedan.
The Rivian truck tore through the barriers with little reduction in speed.
And the Tesla went right under the guardrail.
Researchers noted, “Up until now, little has been known about how the system will perform in crashes involving EVs, which typically weigh 20% to 50% more than gas-powered vehicles, with lower centers of gravity.”
“Gas-powered vehicles would be redirected,” said Steve Eimers, a safety guardrail advocate.
Eimers says he was in the meeting where researchers discussed the findings with transportation officials at the Transportation Research Board. He says the people who were not at the meeting were the ones representing either of the electric vehicle companies.
“We have really smart engineers developing guardrails. We have really smart engineers developing these vehicles. If we can get them in the same room, we can solve this problem,” Eimers said.
We reached out to both Tesla and Rivian. Tesla did not respond to our request, but a representative with Rivian told us:
“We don’t have a comment, but I did want to point out that the Rivian R1S (SUV) and Rivian R1T (Pickup truck) received a Top Safety Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in 2023.”
“That’s great but what about if a Rivian leaves the roadside? That’s the issue. We need Rivian at the table and discussing the solutions,” Eimers said.
The researchers say more additional crash tests are planned and afterward, transportation officials will collaborate to determine the next steps to accommodate the anticipated changes in America’s vehicle fleet.
The research also suggests that EVs are involved in run-off-road crashes at about the same rate and about the same speeds as gasoline vehicles and that "it is going to be necessary to re-examine the designs of roadside barriers even beyond the EVs...It’s a critical and timely need."
