What happens when Volvo’s largest car crashes into its smallest?

Automotive News Europe Managing Editor, Douglas A. Bolduc, travelled to the Volvo Cars Safety Centre in Torslanda, Sweden to observe just how Volvo’s safety technology is reducing the chances of serious injury as the number of larger, heavier electric vehicles on the roads increases.

The test – watch it here – was a side perpendicular crash (often dubbed a T-bone) with an EX90 hitting the much smaller EX30 side-on.

Lotta Jakobsson, Senior Technical Specialist in Injury Prevention at Volvo Cars Safety Centre, explained to Bolduc what happened next.

“That’s quite a dramatic crash, they are exposed to a side impact directly towards their bodies. And in order to protect them well, the EX90 has something that is very good for the people in the EX30: The front part of the main structure is lower down than the main part of the structural frontal impact area,” said Jakobsson.

Which means a lower impact rather than directly into the EX30 passengers – and the dummies, two “small sized females”, were “well protected … Which is quite impressive, simply because they were really just on the other side of the car to where the EX90 was striking them,” she added.

The EX30’s structure and Side Impact Protection System (SIPS), originally developed by Volvo more than 30 years ago, spread the impact around and away from the passengers. “I was happy to see that what we have built into the Side Impact Protection System is performing very well,” said Jakobsson.

Asked by Bolduc whether there will be fewer car crashes in future, given the amount of technology now being developed and deployed by the likes of Volvo and other manufacturers, Jakobsson said in fact the opposite is probably more likely, given the increasing number of cars on the road.

“Crashes will remain, but there will be fewer injuries going forward,” she said – provided experts can keep “developing tools … that are more sensitive for everything that varies in the real world”.

Automotive News Europe’s Managing Editor acknowledged the safety features that Volvo has built into its latest vehicles.

“It’s quite impressive that the EX90 has a special lower member on the car to help it absorb the power of a crash with a smaller vehicle to provide protection to the passengers of the EX90 – but also to provide protection to the passengers in the EX30,” said Bolduc.

“The lower member absorbed a lot of the crash – so there was less damage than you might have expected from the larger car onto the smaller car.”

Established almost 25 years ago, the Torslanda Safety Centre crashes on average at least one brand new Volvo a day.

During crashes, the car, the crash test dummies and the barriers are fitted with sensors that allow Volvo Cars engineers to register the entire chain of events in detail. Dozens of ultra-high definition cameras also film the crash test from every imaginable angle.

The Safety Centre’s rigour and commitment to push the envelope in safety and to learn from real-life traffic accidents is central to the company’s vision for a future in which no one is killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo.

Watch the EX90-EX30 crash test here.