It’s not safe to have the motor block in front. It can be shoved into the cabin and gasoline is ready to ignite on hot exhaust or sparks if the fuel line is ruptured.
A motor block is also not a good crumple zone. I’m happy not to have that in front of me.
Battery fires are much less likely than people fear, even in accidents, although obviously horribly bad when they happen. More importantly this is currently popular battery technology, not endemic to EVs. There have been announcements for newer batteries that prevent this
I do think we need to rethink cars though. The mandatory concept with a crumble zone in front doesn’t translate well to EV.
Why not? A crumple zone is a crumple zone. To the extent EVs facilitate steer by wire so we don’t need a steering column is even better
Because it’s not a motor block in front anymore but (inflammable) batteries and stuff.
It’s not safe to have the motor block in front. It can be shoved into the cabin and gasoline is ready to ignite on hot exhaust or sparks if the fuel line is ruptured.
A motor block is also not a good crumple zone. I’m happy not to have that in front of me.
Battery fires are much less likely than people fear, even in accidents, although obviously horribly bad when they happen. More importantly this is currently popular battery technology, not endemic to EVs. There have been announcements for newer batteries that prevent this
The crumple zone is to slow the car down so the occupants don’t get tossed forward as hard.
It has nothing to do with the engine block. That has its own safety system to push it under the car instead of back in to the cab.