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2023-01-13 02:52:02 EST
NTSB Chair Voices Concerns Over Safety Impact of Heavier Electric Vehicles
The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said she is concerned over
potential safety problems posed by electric vehicles involved in traffic
accidents.
In a keynote address Wednesday at the Transportation Research Board's annual
meeting, agency Chair Jennifer Homendy said her concerns center on the risks of
severe injury and death due to ongoing increases in vehicle curb weights and
what she said was the increasing size, power and performance of the vehicles.
Homendy, for example, said the battery pack of a GMC Hummer EV weighs more than
2,900 pounds, or about the weight of a Honda Civic. The popular electric
version of Ford's F-150 pickup is about 3,000 pounds heavier than the
non-electric version, she added. Similarly, the electric versions of the Ford
Mustang, the Volvo XC40 and Toyota RAV 4 are all about one-third heavier than
their internal combustion engine counterparts, she said.
"That has a significant impact on safety for all road users," she said.
Homendy, who was appointed as chair of the NTSB by President Joe Biden in
August 2021, said that while she was "inspired" by the administration's
commitment to decarbonizing the transportation sector, "we have to be careful
that we aren't also creating unintended consequences: more death on our roads."
She said the U.S. has about 43,000 traffic fatalities each year and millions
are injured.
The administration has made promoting EV use a key part of its strategy to
combat global warming. The bipartisan infrastructure bill adopted in 2021 and
last year's Inflation Reduction Act included funding to promote EV use and the
development of charging infrastructure.
EVs comprised about 6.1% of U.S. vehicle sales in 2022, according to a recent
note by Citi analysts, nearly double the rate seen in 2021. The vehicles are
expected to account for nearly 10% of total sales by the end of this year, the
analysts said.
--Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber,
jbarber@opisnet.com
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