- A crashed Volvo C30 Electric stood out among the pristine — and unscratched — products on display at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show.
- Volvo said it decided to add the crashed car to its display to "spotlight the important issue of electric car safety."
- Volvo had considered showing off a crashed vehicle at previous Detroit auto shows, but its previous owner Ford always put the brakes on such a plan.
DETROIT — A crashed Volvo C30 Electric vehicle turned heads at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show after its reveal on Tuesday, standing out in a sea of carefully groomed cars and trucks and underscoring the automaker's continuing emphasis on its safety reputation.
Volvo had considered showing off a crashed vehicle at previous Detroit auto shows, one Volvo executive told Inside Line, but could never get approval from Ford, its previous owner. With Chinese automaker Geely now in charge, a crashed C30 Electric was the perfect way to show off the car's crashworthiness, said Volvo in a statement.
The C30 Electric, positioned behind a blue barrier and with airbags deployed, had undergone a frontal offset crash test at 40 miles per hour. Volvo said the car had a fully charged battery when it was crashed in early December, but that the "batteries and cables that are part of the electric system remained entirely intact after the collision."
"In Detroit, we are the first car maker to show the world what a truly safe electric car looks like after a collision with high-speed impact," said Stefan Jacoby, Volvo Cars' president and CEO, in a statement.
Deliveries of the first Volvo C30 Electric, which is equipped with a 110-horsepower electric motor, to customers in Sweden will start in early 2012. A demo fleet is also planned for the U.S. later this year.
Inside Line says: Don't try this at home. — Anita Lienert.
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djohn116 says:
04:25 AM, 01/14/2011
This is forth C30 Electric out of 10 that we will crash test. Aside from hundreds of computer sims we've done, nothing beats a real metal bender. One completed test was a 51 mph rear impact and another was 30 mph frontal pole test. In all cases the systems performed as planned. In about 50 millsec the battery is electronically disconnected from vehicle. Our system methodologies are rather good and with placement of the batteries away from intruding surfaces we believe this is a very workable solution.
dan
volvo
www.volvoblog.us
juan_mx says:
01:58 PM, 01/12/2011
It is good that Volvo is working hard on the safety of Electric cars, but it will take more than a frontal crash test to convince me that they can protect the cables and the batteries enough to not cause a problem (fire, shortcircuit, battery leak, etc.).
charlesb says:
10:53 AM, 01/12/2011
If electric is part of the solution I'm still not convinced.