...More '70s Electric Car Crash Tests...

This report, entitled "Applicability of Federal Motor Vehicle Standards to Electric and Hybrid Vehicles", was made in 1977 (although a specific date isn't given, it speaks of a meeting held on July 14, 1977 in past tense, and a standard to be developed by mid-December 1977, so we know it was made in the second half of 1977). It features a discussion of electric vehicle safety as it stood in 1977, and ways that it could have been improved. 

CitiCar

In it, there are two crash tests of the CitiCar, a small (1,300 lb) electric two-seater car made from 1974-1977. Unfortunately, there were no dummies in the vehicles for the tests. The first test was full-frontal, into a solid barrier at 21 mph. It was supposed to be at 30, but was slower due to a control malfunction. The second test was the same, but at the originally prescribed 30 mph. 

Even at only 21 mph, the steering column rotated upward enough to contact the windshield (which fell out), the footwell was damaged enough to create a hole where the driver's feet would be, electrolyte spilled into the passenger floorboard. Both doors were jammed.

Crank the speed up to 30, and the entire occupant space was destroyed. Go to page 9 in the report for a picture. Both doors flew off, the steering wheel moved over a foot and a half upward and was pointing nearly straight up after the crash. Even an airbag wouldn't have helped. There was massive electrolyte leakage. 

What would the dummies have to say, if they were in there? There was an identical 30-mph full-frontal crash test performed on the CitiCar's successor, the Comuta-Car, in 1981, and the results were pretty bad, with head injury criteria of 1668 and 1204 for the driver and passenger (threshold for likely serious injury is 1000; likely death is around 2000). That means that if you were in a Comuta-Car and hit a wall at 30 mph, you'd probably survive, but with severe and possibly permanent injury.

Notice that I said Comuta-Car, not Citicar. The Comuta-Car had major structural upgrades including a full DOT-approved aluminum roll cage and a front crumple zone that was nearly a foot longer. It's safe to say that someone in either seat of the CitiCar in the 30 mph impact probably would not have survived. Even the 21 mph impact looked like it could have caused severe injury.

1976 EVA Metro Electric vs. four similar, gas-powered 1976 cars

Another 30 mph crash test concerned the 1976 EVA Metro Electric, which is based on a 1974 Renault R-12 sedan. It was compared with four other 1976 cars of similar size (see pages 11-15 in the report for pictures and results for all five vehicles). These four vehicles were a Chevy Vega, Pontiac Sunbird, AMC Gremlin, and Chevy Nova. 

The Metro performed far better than the Citicar, with forces on the driver dummy indicating a low risk of serious injury, with a HIC of 631 and 37 Chest G's. (The threshold is 1,000 HIC and 60 Chest G's). Forces on the Gremlin and Nova's dummies were higher for both head and chest, but still under the threshold; the Vega and Sunbird's driver dummies' HICs exceeded 1,000, indicating a likelihood of serious injury. 

Although the Metro's injury measures were the lowest, the vehicle showed signs of structural deficiency. While the four conventional cars held up well structurally, the Metro's firewall was pushed rearward 9 inches, compromising the space for legs. The steering wheel moved upward enough to strike the windshield. The heater gas tank's cap came off, spraying three quarts of gasoline in the engine compartment. 

With respect to the other cars, the Metro's performance, all things considered. would seem to be worse than that of the Gremlin and Nova. The injury measures in those vehicles, while moderately higher than the Metro, were still low enough that a real-life driver would probably not sustain serious injury. Structurally, the Gremlin and Nova held up well with minimal intrusion into the occupant compartment. In the report, it said "it is reasonable to postulate that the maximum survivable collision speed would be considerably lower than in conventional cars" for the Metro.

However, the Metro's performance would seem to be better than that of the Vega and Sunbird. In these vehicles, the driver would already be likely to suffer severe head injury at 30 mph.