This is the most unusual crash test I’ve ever seen. Chery, the Chinese electric vehicle maker, recently decided to wreck its latest sedan in front of an audience, which is unusual by itself. However, in an attempt to simulate a hyper-specific scenario, it added not only one car but two to the test.
The test starts off with a new Chery Exeed Sterra ES electric sedan sitting in the center of the crash floor. It then gets tackled like an NFL running back by two identical cars from opposite directions. According to Carscoops, the test was designed to simulate a scenario in which a car gets hit by both directions of traffic at the same time while attempting a U-turn. Does that sort of crash happen often in China and Chery is trying to ensure its EVs can hold up? Your guess is as good as mine.
While I appreciate their thoroughness, being hyper-specific in a crash test can actually be counter-productive. This incredibly specific scenario requires both impacting cars to be the same size and weight while traveling at exactly the same speeds, hitting the exact spots that they did. So what happens if both impacting cars aren’t Chery Exeed Sterras? What if one is a different kind of sedan and the other is an SUV? What if both are SUVs? Also, what’s with the audience? After the crash test occurs, you can hear “oohs” and “ahhs” before a crowd comes in through several doors to check out the damage.
In Chery’s defense, the car seemed to hold up well to the two other cars. Its chassis didn’t seem to twist, the pillars remained straight, all airbags deployed, the door handles automatically extended so emergency personnel could open them from outside, and the passenger dummies seemed OK. The Exeed looks like a robust midsize sedan.
Of course, it’s worth noting that this test was conducted by Chery itself and not a federal or independent agency. It isn’t the first time an automaker has come up with its own new testing scenario for it to then become a new standardized test. Volvo has been the pioneer of several crash tests over the years, including the use of crash dummies themselves. But it does mean that further government and independent testing is needed to verify whatever data Chery recovered.
Will this double-sided U-turn crash test become a new standard in China and eventually the world? Perhaps, but I doubt it. It seems overly specific and the entirety of this test is unusual, leaving more questions than answers. At least it’s entertaining.
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