The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has been around since 1959 and plays a significant role in evaluating the safety of vehicles with the aim of reducing injuries, deaths, and property damage by conducting crash tests.
As the automotive world transitions to electric vehicles that are much heavier than vehicles of the past because of their batteries, the IIHS has been forced to test its equipment to make sure it will meet the demands of heavier vehicle testing.
At the core of the testing process is the propulsion system they use to tow vehicles toward a crash barrier. Since these vehicles are not being driven into the barrier, the organization needed to be sure that the system at its Vehicle Research Center would be able to handle the extra weight. Leading up to this test, the heaviest vehicle the IIHS tested was the 5,720-pound (2,595 kg) Audi e-Tron.
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