Firefighters and rapid response units have been tearing apart wrecked cars (in the event of a very serious accident like this recent Corvette Z06 crash) in order to safely extract their precious human cargo in the same way for decades.
They knew they had to steer clear of fuel lines and electrical components, but aside from that, they had free range to chop up the cars as they saw fit.
However, with the increasing number of hybrids and pure electric vehicles present on the world’s roads today, the techniques used will have to evolve, and adapt to the special requirements that these vehicles warrant.
In the case of pure EVs, there are no fuel lines in sight, but the job is not made any easier. In fact, it is actually even more difficult and painstaking to get at passengers trapped in an EV, because of the multitude of high-voltage cables, as well as the battery packs.
Tesla has just put out lengthy video (over 37 minutes long) in which the proper techniques are explained. The car sacrificed for this safety exercise? A Model S pure-electric sedan.
Check out the video after the jump, and if you don’t have time to watch all of it, you can skip directly to the part where the Model S is torn apart, around the 27-minute mark.
By Andrei Nedelea
Story References: Jalopnik via Wired
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