Mercedes crashes two CLAs into each other at 56 km/h – battery stays intact
Mercedes-Benz staged a public side-impact crash in Stuttgart using two moving production cars. According to the automaker, both passenger cells stayed intact and the high-voltage battery was undamaged.
Photo: Matti Blume / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · Mercedes-Benz · youtube.com
Mercedes-Benz says it has staged the world's first public high-speed side-impact crash test involving two moving production vehicles, held in Stuttgart. A CLA Shooting Brake with an electrified combustion engine struck the driver's side of an all-electric CLA sedan without braking. Both cars were traveling at 56 km/h (35 mph) and each weighed more than two metric tons. Mercedes released the results on Oct. 20.
Eight dummies, four adults and four children, were on board, each with up to 150 measuring points. According to Mercedes, all readings stayed below biomechanical limits and both passenger cells remained intact. The electric CLA's high-voltage battery was not damaged, and the high-voltage system shut down automatically. According to autoevolution, both cars unlocked their doors, partly lowered the side windows and triggered an eCall. The test was run by the automaker, not by an independent body such as Euro NCAP.
"Mercedes-Benz's ambition is to build the safest vehicles in the world," said Chief Technology Officer Jörg Burzer. Mercedes says about one in four injury-causing accidents is a side impact. The company says it has analyzed about 6,000 real-world accidents since 1969, and each new model goes through about 15,000 virtual crash simulations and about 150 physical crash tests.