I a perfect world, all bumpers created at the same height. This would send the battery and forward on to the next car leaving all passengers relatively safe. This would also make the bumpers 12 inches off the ground or all vehicles would have to be SUV height size for the battery/bumper to be at normal heights and give the passengers head room and safety they deserve.
But I like the idea. After a few years of driving you could attach a bumper sticker that says "Hit me as hard as you can! Please, I need new batteries" Rick R. -----Original Message----- From: Lee Hart [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 11:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: How about a 100% electric Prius? These comments on crashworthiness gave me an insane idea. I'll call it the "hammer". Let me get it out of my head before it does any more damage :-) Assume an EV that is basically half car and half batteries by weight. Mount the batteries in a big flat box under the center floor of the car. The front and rear bumpers are attached not to the car, but to the battery box. They form the head of our "hammer". The battery box plus bumper assembly is only loosely attached to the car, by some sort of springy shock-absorbing mount. The front and rear spaces (hood and trunk) are basically several feet of energy-absorbing crumple zone. They are the handle of our "hammer". Imagine that some heavy vehicle slams into the car. Rather than the whole car absorbing the impact energy, the battery box takes it all. The "attacking" vehicle will react as if it hit a half-ton lead wall. Meanwhile the loosely-coupled body is more slowly accellerated, with its front (or rear as the case may be) crushing to absorb the energy. In the extreme, one could even imagine the battery box breaking entirely free of the car, and either embedding itself in the attacking vehicle, or rebounding out the other end of your EV, carrying a good deal of kinetic energy with it. -- Lee A. Hart Ring the bells that still can ring 814 8th Ave. N. Forget your perfect offering Sartell, MN 56377 USA There is a crack in everything leeahart_at_earthlink.net That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
