Everything was ready in Dübendorf, on a test track in Switzerland, where the insurance company AXA intended to send guests and journalists a message that promised to attract attention: “Electric cars generate 50% more accidents and cause more damage, for themselves and for others, than their competitors with combustion engines”. What those present witnessed was a crash testin the case of an accident simulation, in which a Tesla Model S ended up with its wheels in the air and on fire.
Faked accident and tampered with vehicle
As it happens, the German publication 24auto.de I suspected with what you saw in crash test held on August 25 and asked some questions. Responses took a while, but got him back on topic on September 5th, and with surprising updates. Questioned by the Germans, AXA was forced to admit, in a statement, that “We are sorry if we gave the wrong impression or caused some misunderstandings. During this year’s edition of our crash tests”.
More than that, AXA He confessed that “the crash test did not cause damage to the lower casing of the batteries, nor to the vehicle, which would make it likely that a fire would break out, as suggested by the images we disseminated”. In the process, the insurer also announced that the Model S used was manipulated. EITHER package of the batteries was removed, A remote-controlled pyrotechnic system was installed with the aim of starting the fire. On this specific point, AXA recognizes that “the risk of fire during an accident is very low, whether it is with gasoline or electric motors, since, statistically, only five out of 10,000 cases cause deaths by fire”.
The Tesla Model S used in the simulation did not have a battery, but instead had a pyrotechnic system.
AXA’s claims do not fully align with previous findings by ADAC, the German equivalent of the ACP, which regularly crash tests with all types of vehicles sold in Germany. Now, according to ADAC, not only “Electric vehicles typically perform more efficiently in protecting occupants than their combustion engine competitors.due to the necessary reinforcements in the battery area, since the risk of fire does not seem to be greater”.
Do trams cause more accidents?
Another of AXA’s communication vectors pointed to the greater probability that electric vehicles cause more accidents and cause more damage. Michael Pfäffli, head of accident investigation at the insurer, defended that the fact that electric vehicles have a lot of torque, especially the most powerful ones, can generate an acceleration that is too abrupt when you step on the accelerator. Also the fact that they are heavier, due to the presence of the battery, would lead electric cars to cause more damage to other vehicles.
Insurer AXA put on this amazing demonstration of a Tesla scraping its battery and bursting into flames.
The only problem was… it was 100% staged and 500% weird. For public safety, they removed the battery and…installed pyrotechnics.
What a strange timeline we’re in. pic.twitter.com/M3er4ML3ep— Gavin Shoebridge (@KiwiEV) August 31, 2022
These statements by Pfäffli are based on truth, although they do not allow the conclusions drawn by the insurer to be reached. In fact, the sportier electric cars are very fast and respond faster to the accelerator, especially if they are in the Sport program or equivalent. More important than that – and this argument slipped past the AXA technician – Faster battery-powered cars have made high-revving models accessible to many more drivers because they are substantially cheaper. You just have to keep in mind that a Tesla Model 3 Performance, proposed for about 70 thousand euros, reaches 100 km/h in just 3.3 seconds, which places it at the same level as the Lamborghini Huracán or the Ferrari Roma and Portofino, all of them requiring an investment close to 300 thousand euros. This means that there will be a lot more people, potentially less used to extremely fast models, forced to be very careful with throttle dosage. But the reality is that there are no credible studies that give Ferrari and Lamborghini owners a higher chance of being involved in accidents.
Another of Pfäffli’s arguments is the one that points to the greater weight of electric vehicles as the explanation for why they cause more damage to the cars they collide with. This is indisputably true, since in a head-on collision between two cars of different weights, the lighter one has to absorb more energy, deforming more and exposing its occupants to greater decelerations and efforts. What the technician does not mention is the advantages that this situation represents for the owners of battery vehicles. – the same one that benefited and continues to benefit Audi A8, BMW 7 Series and S-Class drivers who, every time they collide with other smaller and heavier vehicles, “suffer” less. In other words, they are better protected.
During the AXA demo, in addition to the crash test of the Model S, the insurer had a head-on collision with overlap part speed at 50 km/h between two VW Golfs, one electric and one petrol, which is about 400 kg lighter. Although both models maintained the necessary survival space for the occupants, the deformation was greater in the combustion Golf, being lighterwhich means that the effort applied to the body was equally greater, since the structure of both VWs is similar.
Source: Observadora
