G-Wiz Crash Test Unfair
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 05.21.07
I watch Top Gear because, although I'm green at heart, I do love cars. Some primeval part of me wishes that a huge 4 litre V8 muscle car was environmentally friendly, but it's not, so I bike. Anyway, Top Gear has reported that the G-Wiz electric car has fared rather badly in recent crash tests.
"In a crash test exclusively conducted for Top Gear to the EuroNCAP procedure, a G-Wiz electric vehicle - increasingly fashionable as a way of avoiding London's congestion charge - was crushed so badly that its driver's life would have been seriously endangered."
The car doesn't have to undergo these tests normally as it's small enough to be classed as a quadricycle, so Top Gear had the test performed themselves. A more cynical reporter would speculate that they may have done this hoping that they achieved these results, it would make perfect entertainment for their key demographic to watch something be destroyed and simultaneously laugh at 'hippie environmentalists'.
However, the makers were keen to emphasise that the car is designed as an urban commuter. These cars don't go fast enough to get into a serious accident, and even if they did, they couldn't in the middle of a city. They are certainly safer than a moped, and a lot more comfortable. It's unfair to judge them by the standards of a regular, highway or motorway car. :: G-Wiz Official Response :: Top Gear article
See also :: G-Wiz Caught on Camera
It doesn't go fast enough to get into a serious accident? So I couldn't drive at high speed into it?
And lol@4.0 ltr muscle car. Which muscle cars came with a 4.0 ltr engine?
More than 50% serious car accident here in Europe happens in the cities, not in the motorways.
A car accident at the city speed of 50kph could lead to severe injuries, unlike most people tend to believe.
I didn't watch top gear, but as far as i know this is the speed of the test (50kph - 30mph), so it's not a motorway speed.
Anyway it's equally interesting to realize that the "i go slow so i don't care how my care scored at the crash test" argument is not fair, because you could always be involved in a car accident that's not your fault, for example a truck could hit you in the rear when you're still
So, i understand that this test was not safe, but pointed some actually concrete arguments in my humble opinion.
p.s. : Worth to mention that the argument "the car is small and used only in the cities so it MUST do bad at crash tests, because only big cars can do well at a crash test" is not consistent, some very small cars infact, like the "Smart" (a wide-spread car here in italy as a city-car) have way better crash tests, while mantaining the same very small form-factor (it's a 2 passenger car).
p.p.s. : sorry for my english.
I think it is good to know that these cars, which are not advertised as ALTERNATIVES to regular cars, but hailed as Innovations and replacements for the car, even only in regards to city commuter traffic, are being crash tested under strict and balanced conditions.
This will assure that the makers will continue to press ahead in developing safer structures, possibly transmutating the design over to CarbonFibre bodies (such as advocated for by Amory Lovins from the RockyMountain Institute) and such.
With the recent boost in Large Cell LiFePo4 batteries, the real challenge to the Auto Industry is just around the corner.
It should have been 40 years ago but it's too late to lament, but I rather would like to move towards this sooner than later,
The Toyota RAV 4 EV or the EV 1 would have done just fine in those tests, b.t.w.!
Keep driving electric, I certainly am - even if it's only on an electric Vespa, but I love making a difference.
Your lucky if you can reach 30mph in some big cities. From what I remember of London it was pretty gridlocked.
30+30=60mph in a head on crash.
Carbon fiber would be great for lightweight fuel efficient cars, unfortunately the prices for it have skyrocketed in recent years, due to high demand caused by the war and (I would guess) all the CF used in the blades of wind turbines.
They're not picking on it because its environmentally friendly, they're picking on it because it dodges safety standards to stay cheap. I'm interested: have they reviewed the Tesla Roadster? I wonder what Jeremy would have to say about that...
ps. Check out TopGear.com and you'll see they're at least attempting to address "green" cars, as they are currently having a "Green(ish) Special".
Commuters Cars Tango has a massive roll cage to ensure their car and the occupants survive a crash. Roll cages are cheap effective and wont add too much to the weight.
There is simply no excuse to produce a car that performs so poorly in a crash.
Since drivers seem to adjust their speed to their sence of security, a really good way is to crash cars where U sit higher, further back and cars really quiet at higher speeds.
Its not a microcar U see running at 80km/hour between stopsigns in the city that scares U its the Porsche Cayenne.
Results of such a test would show a better and more accuarate level of safety for others (outside the car) aswell.
Todays tests are favoring smaller cars, but not in the sense of that a smaller lighter car eisier avoid a crash aswell as beeing safer to the people around.
The average traffic speed in central London is now under 10mph, even during the daytime off-peak period, according to this government report (p.20) so G-Wiz owners probably shouldn't be too worried by the crash test:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/london-travel-report-2003.pdf
Personally, I'm hoping that London gets more silent electric cars - that way the general pedestrian population might learn to look before walking out into the road rather than just listening. I shall wear my bicycle bell out before its time at the current lemming rate...
Of course a 40mph crash is unfair on a car that has a top speed of 45mph. I responded with the same arguments when it came up on Autobloggreen.
Yo, Shamu ...
There's nothing unfair about seeing how a car performs if its occupant is involved in a crash in which something travelling at 40 miles per hour crashes head-on into it.
Don't they teach physics anymore? The fact that the car you are in has a top speed of 45 miles per hour is irrelevant, since you can be standing still and have a 40-mph head-on collision with another vehicle. Are you so intellecutally vacuous that you cannot understand that simple fact.
Sheesh, and you wonder why we don't let you treehuggers run things? It's because you are uneducated and too emotionally insecure to accept physics as a fact of life.
Sheesh, and you wonder why we don't let you treehuggers run things?
Methinks the only thing you run is a broom down the aisle at WalMart.
As someone above mentioned the smart car fairs much better in crashes and there is a vid on the internet showing one enduring a high speed crash. Not sure if Top Gear was involved with it.
The problem with a car performing this poorly is as it has been said as well it is not if your going to hit something going that fast but what if you cross paths with a wreckless idiot. A few years back I remember an accident involving a regular econo car and a motorcycle at a bad crossroads near my town. The motorcycle went through the door of the car and killed the driver. The biker went over the roof of the car and survived, he was very lucky! So how would you fair if you were hit in this vehicle in the same way.
I don't think we all need to drive tanks but I also don't think we need to drive dangerous cars. I would not drive that car cause I've seen impatent drivers do dumb things in heavy city traffic.
"Sheesh, and you wonder why we don't let you treehuggers run things? It's because you are uneducated and too emotionally insecure to accept physics as a fact of life."
That's a bit harsh but many treehuggers have a very thin skin and throw a fit if any thing they like is shown to have flaws.
Carbon Fiber prices aren't going up because of the war. They are going up because the major airliner manufacturers are using way more composites. Wind Turbine Industry might not help, but lots of that material is glass fiber, not all carbon.
hat's a bit harsh but many treehuggers have a very thin skin and throw a fit if any thing they like is shown to have flaws.
Kind of like some Christians.
"you can be standing still and have a 40-mph head-on collision with another vehicle"
incredublelunacy, I was referring to the low speeds at which these cars travel. But I see your point.
Car safety should equip you for not just the event of you crashing into another car (at which G-wiz has lesser chance of an injury because of low speed travel)... but also in the event another car crashes into you.
Thanks
Crash tests are quite stupid and would be obsolete if external air bag technology was to be used with cars. These would be air bags located in bumpers and controlled with radar.
adrianakau@aol.com
Whatever the funny boys of Top Gear are proving, it is a fact that petrol and diesel cars are killing thousands a year, and without ever crashing.
The nr of crashes is not relevant fot the nr of kills.
Fossil motorcars are killing 1 of every thousand inhabitants, every year, in areas with much airpollution like London, the Netherlands and Germany. See the satellite images on
http://www.temis.nl/airpollution/no2col/no2regioomi.php
That is why Top Gear should be forced to tell and show in an effective visual, how many kills a fossil powered car will make during its useful lifetime.
And how unhealthy it is to drive in todays traffic for everyone
Fossil motorcars are killing 1 of every thousand inhabitants, every year
13% of deaths are due to cars? I think not.
all i can say is sush..... the only way to resolve the pollution issue is to use bio fuels.... but the UK govenment won't do it becasue they are legally not allowed to put on even half as much Tax as they do on petrolium... its all a way to make money for them... remember so called safety cameras cause accidents on roads where accidents were unheard of 15 - 20 years ago.... and its the price we pay for living in a country where all we get is...... oh wait nothing....