BREAKING BARRIERS
Engineers with the University of Nebraska’s road safety testing facility have discovered that electric vehicles are too heavy to be stopped by highway guardrails. In early February, engineers with the university released their initial crash test results in which a 2022 Rivian R1T—which weighs nearly four tonnes—was rammed into the same type of guardrails used along most American and Canadian highways. During the test, the Rivian R1T tore through the metal guardrail and continued until hitting a concrete barrier on the other side of the test lane. Road safety officials and organizations have weighed in on the issue and say that electric vehicles themselves appear to offer superior protection to their occupants, even if they, like other heavy vehicles, might prove dangerous to occupants of lighter vehicles in a crash.
DIMINISHED DEGREDATION
A new study from researchers at Stanford University has found that simply resting a lithium-metal battery can reverse degradation from charging and use. Currently, these batteries are not used in electric or hybrid vehicles, even though they offer higher energy density and output, and lighter weight than their lithium-ion counterparts. This is because, while more energy efficient, lithium-metal batteries have been found to rapidly degrade after just a few charge cycles. Researchers have found that when completely discharged and without any current running through it, a lithium-metal battery will actually begin to heal itself. Resting a battery for just an hour, researchers say, will begin the healing process by allowing any trapped energy to dissipate.
