In a column published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the agency's vice president Raul Arbelaez has stated that the hefty weight of an EV poses an increased safety risk for road users and a potential solution to avoid severe carnage is to lower speed limits.
The VP notes that when the IIHS started testing electric vehicles in 2011, the question on everyone's minds was whether those huge battery packs posed a fire risk. But now, weight has become a more pertinent concern than fire (although extinguishing EV flames remains a challenge). Late last year, the IIHS showed its concern over the weight of electric vehicles like the 9,500-pound GMC Hummer EV and had to retest all its equipment to be sure that the GM product and other electric behemoths may be evaluated.
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