Safety remains a priority among automakers. But the growing move to electric means car safety is facing new challenges.
Nissan is intent on reducing deaths from accidents involving Nissan vehicles, including EVs.
In November 2021, Nissan unveiled Nissan Ambition 2030, its long-term vision for empowering mobility and beyond. The initiative aims for a cleaner, safer, and more inclusive world. And, with it came to the mission to ensure each vehicle, including the Ariya, the all-electric Nissan crossover, is subject to rigorous crash testing.
At the Nissan Technical Centre in Atsugi, Japan, a highly trained team of engineers puts Nissan’s flagship EV through hundreds of extensive tests, including frontal-side- and rear-impact collisions and those that simulate accidents when pedestrians are on the road.
“More than 100 data points are evaluated on the Ariya,” says Gen Tanabe of the Passive Safety Evaluation Group. “Because the upcoming Ariya will be sold in many markets, we will conduct more than 400 tests from the early stages of development to market launch.”
Engineers from the Nissan Passive Safety Evaluation Group measure the force of potential impact on the body and structural components, as well as its effects on the driver and passengers, via test dummies of various sizes and body types equipped with multiple sensors that record simulated injury levels to vital areas of the body.
Many testing procedures employed for the Nissan LEAF apply to Ariya. Because Ariya’s EV battery pack is high voltage, the safety engineers needed to ensure it retained its structural integrity in the case of a crash without the electrodes leaking.
As the basis for developing safer vehicles, Nissan's safety proposition includes active and passive safety measures to support the well-being of vehicle occupants in all imaginable scenarios. The overall goal is to prevent collisions and mitigate damage and injuries.
