Of course, the primary responsibility--and liability--for vehicle safety lies with the automakers.
Government, however, has the responsibility to understand the issues and set appropriate safety
peformance standards. NHTSA, under the Department of Commerce, is responsible for safety
regulations for motor vehicles. NHTSA has received comments on new and amended Federal
Motor Vehicle Safety Standards collected under an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,
but has not drafted any final rules. NHTSA has determined that EVs should comply with the
intent or purpose of all existing standards,” although it recognizes the need to modify existing
regulations that apply to ICE vehicles as appropriate.
DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has conducted a number of studies on
EV safety issues,
39
and since 1990 has chaired the Ad Hoc EV Battery Readiness Working
Group, a government/industry advisory body.^40 While NREL and the Working Group have made
a good start, much remains to be done. Examples include: the need for better data from a more
extensive testing and demonstration program; developing “systems” approaches to EV safety (as
opposed to battery or component-oriented approaches); comprehensive risk assessment to place
particular risks in perspective; and the need to broaden the focus to include additional
technologies, such as flywheels and ultracapacitors.As discussed in the section on crashworthiness of vehicle materials and structures, preliminary
tests have demonstrated that vehicles made of aluminum and polymer composites can meet safety
standards. Designers and regulators, however, do not currently have the tools to predict
accurately the behavior of these advanced vehicle structures in crash situations, especially for
composites. In FY 1996, NHTSA has requested $3.5 million to model the crashworthiness of
advanced, lightweight vehicles. Much more experience with the crash behavior of these materials
is likely to be required before designers and regulators develop the confidence they currently have
in steel.Infrastructure. Advanced vehicles cannot operate in a vacuum; they require a supporting
infrastructure comparable to the existing conventional vehicle infrastructure. As used here,
infrastructure refers not only to fuel production, distribution, storage, and transfer to the vehicle,
but also to manufacturing issues such as materials availability, manufacturing expertise, and
capabilities for servicing, repair, and recycling vehicles.Depending on the specific vehicle design, fuel and structural materials, this infrastructure could
look very different from those of today, although a major transformation of the infrastructure will
not occur rapidly. It is more likely that advanced vehicles for the mass market will be designed to
function within the existing infrastructure--at least initially--than that the massive petroleum-based
fuel infrastructure will be changed to accommodate new vehicle technologies.^41 Eventually,
vehicle technologies and supporting infrastructure may evolve together incrementally into new
forms.39smdim ~ve included =fe~ ‘u=associated wilh shipping in-vehicle aafety, and recycling/dispoaal of a number of EV battery ~ including
aodium aulfbr, nickel-metal hydride, lithium polymer, and lithium ion.
aC.J. HammeL a-g Society of Detroi$^ “Eleetric Vehicle Environmental,^ Heal& and Safbty^ fiOgI?lIll and BatIery Readiness Working
Grou ,“ January 1994.
4!E_l= *~ld ~ h~ds hat ~ ~ On dual fuels such as gasoline and methanol, or fuel cells that mn on refo~~ g=line ~ diesel fuel