Here’s a new wrinkle in the rollout of electric vehicles pertaining to crash safety.

Crash safety and crash testing are done using large machinery to simulate a real accident, it’s really exactly what it sounds like. The problem is that electric vehicles are much heavier than standard gasoline vehicles because of the enormous lithium-ion battery. 

Some of these vehicles range from 8,000-9,000 pounds, while most larger gasoline cars weigh closer to 4,500 pounds at the most. Of course, there are some crash test machines designed to rate heavier vehicles like Hummers and larger trucks, but they’re not as common as the smaller machines that may not be able to be used safely.

Be on the lookout for a rollout of higher capacity crash testing to make sure that electric vehicles have good safety and crash results.