Volvo Says It Is Focusing on Ways to Make Electric Vehicles Safe for Occupants
By Scott Doggett September 23, 2009
Volvo cars and trucks have always been designed to withstand the rigors of Sweden's rough roads and cold temperatures, with particular emphasis on surviving a collision.
This is why Volvo has invented so many safety features since the making its first car in 1927.
Those features include a safety cage for occupants, laminated windshield, three-point safety belts, padded instrument panel, crumple zones, anti-locking brakes, inflatable curtain and lane-departure warning. The full list of Volvo safety innovations is quite long.
Now the Swedish automaker is applying some of those inventions to protecting the batteries that propel electric vehicles.
In a statement released today, Volvo said it conducting "extremely wide-ranging and thorough analysis of a variety of safety scenarios for cars with electric power.
"Through advanced automatic monitoring of battery status and by encapsulating the battery and protecting it effectively in a collision, the result is a comprehensive safety package of the very highest class."
Volvo's safety tests take place in several different stages. First at component level, then for whole systems and finally the complete car is safety-tested -- both virtually in the computer, and physically in Volvo's technically advanced crash-test center.
At present Volvo is conducting tests at component level to see how the electric-vehicle's battery is affected by harsh braking and the subsequent collision.
"We are also carrying out, for the first time, advanced crash tests in full scale to evaluate the technology in electrically powered cars," Volvo Cars' safety expert, Thomas Broberg, said.
He said it may well turn out that cars powered solely by electricity can be made even safer than cars with combustion engines. "We like to see electrification technology as an exciting challenge - even from the safety viewpoint," he said.
Through extensive testing, Volvo has already determined that the ideal safety location for the large battery that fuels an electric-vehicle's motor is in the rear of the car between the wheel housings, separated from the car's crumple zones.
In that position, the battery is also sturdily encapsulated in steel beams, and other parts of the structure around the battery are reinforced to protect the battery from being affected in the case of a collision.
And, if the battery is damaged, resulting in gas leakage, special evacuation ducts lead the gas out under the car without any contact with the occupants. In the event of extreme heat, the occupants are shielded by the battery's encapsulation.
We wish Volvo well as its engineers develop ways to protect people from the technology that offers to benefit mankind in various significant ways, not least of all by improving the quality of the air we breathe.
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