The Expert Podcast

Here's a new wrinkle with the rollout of electric vehicles: crash safety and crash testing. Crash testing is done using machines like this one, which performs exactly what it sounds like—testing how vehicles fare in crashes.

The problem is that electric vehicles are much heavier than standard vehicles because of the battery. Some of these vehicles weigh eight to nine thousand pounds, and crash test machines may not be rated for that.

There obviously are some machines that rate higher to test things like Hummers and larger trucks, but some of the smaller machines that are more popular and more common may not be able to handle these weights.

Look for a rollout of larger volumes of higher-capacity crash testing to ensure that electric vehicles achieve good safety and crash results.