G-Wiz Crash Test Unfair

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