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>and it's impossible to avoid a vehicle battery cracking open in a bad enough accident If you watch old car racing competitions, you will see that they were ex

>and it's impossible to avoid a vehicle battery cracking open in a bad enough accident If you watch old car racing competitions, you will see that they were extremely dangerous because of the gas deposit burning at the minimum crash. How many of those you see today? Close to zero. They let the deposit deform under an accident and it really works. Electric cars are much safer for humans than ICE in accidents because batteries could displace under people instead of hitting people like engines do. Electric cars are going to make cars significantly safer by avoiding the accident in the first place. I prefer having a car that helps me not having an accident than worrying too much about what would happen in a bad enough accident.

throwawayboise 5y ago
Energy is energy. If there's a way for damage to cause the battery to discharge "all at once" there will be an explosion/fire just as bad as the equivalent gasoline fire. > Electric cars are going to make cars significantly safer by avoiding the accident in the first place. I see no reason why the fuel source has any bearing on accident avoidance.
- yazaddaruvala 5y ago
  EV's are theoretically better at accident avoidance because of their distribution of mass compared with ICE. e.g. Lower/distributed center of gravity makes cars faster to stop, and easier to turn. This is one of many advantages. Some others are related to: fewer components i.e. fewer failures, instant torque i.e. better handling, etc. That said, given that an equivalent accident occurred to an ICE car and to an EV from the side[0], "energy is energy" and likely will result in similar injury/fire. [0] the front/back of EVs have better crumple zones than ICE.
vagrantJin 5y ago
> Electric cars are much safer for humans than ICE in accidents because batteries could displace under people instead of hitting people like engines do. Don't engines do a similar job of going underneath the chassis in high impact collions? I don't think EV are safer, because there aren't as many data points just yet - but seatbelts definitely help.

throwawayboise 5y ago

Energy is energy. If there's a way for damage to cause the battery to discharge "all at once" there will be an explosion/fire just as bad as the equivalent gasoline fire. > Electric cars are going to make cars significantly safer by avoiding the accident in the first place. I see no reason why the fuel source has any bearing on accident avoidance.

yazaddaruvala 5y ago
EV's are theoretically better at accident avoidance because of their distribution of mass compared with ICE. e.g. Lower/distributed center of gravity makes cars faster to stop, and easier to turn. This is one of many advantages. Some others are related to: fewer components i.e. fewer failures, instant torque i.e. better handling, etc. That said, given that an equivalent accident occurred to an ICE car and to an EV from the side[0], "energy is energy" and likely will result in similar injury/fire. [0] the front/back of EVs have better crumple zones than ICE.

vagrantJin 5y ago

> Electric cars are much safer for humans than ICE in accidents because batteries could displace under people instead of hitting people like engines do. Don't engines do a similar job of going underneath the chassis in high impact collions? I don't think EV are safer, because there aren't as many data points just yet - but seatbelts definitely help.