The authorities in China, which until recently poured billions into the rapid development of plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles, are now sounding the alarm due to two extremely worrying trends. We are talking about the dizzying increase in the weight of modern vehicles and the introduction of interior design whims that literally compromise passive safety in severe accidents.
The statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China are, to put it mildly, startling. If in the not-so-distant year of 2012 the average mass of a new Chinese vehicle was a very reasonable 1,312 kilograms, then by the end of 2024 this figure had swelled to 1,704 kilograms. Oh, yes, you read that right – cars have weighed an average of nearly 400 kilos in just over a decade, with the lion's share of this "obesity" occurring in the last four years.
The reasons for this phenomenon are no secret. Consumer hunger for huge SUVs and luxury minivans, packed with refrigerators, movie theaters and reclining armchairs, collides with the purely technical requirements of the electric era. A serious traction battery with a capacity of 100 kWh weighs between half a ton and 600 kilograms, and in models chasing record mileage, the weight of the energy package can nail an absurd 800 kilos. However, this has cruel economic and physical consequences - a heavy car requires more raw materials, wears out tires and asphalt in no time and increases braking distance by 5% with a mere ten percent increase in weight. The opposite is also true: if engineers manage to remove 100 kg from the structure, energy consumption drops by as much as 7.5 percent.
To put an end to this vicious practice, Beijing has already activated the heavy regulatory artillery by introducing ruthless energy efficiency standards. For example, machines weighing more than 2.7 tons are required to consume less than 19.1 kWh per 100 km on the local CLTC cycle in order to qualify for the tempting state tax breaks. This is a clear signal to manufacturers that the era of aimless battery consolidation is over. The future belongs to ultra-lightweight composite materials, more efficient architecture and battery cells with high energy density.
The inspectors are also looking at a very modern but extremely insidious element of the interior - the so-called “zero-gravity” seats. The seats in question allow passengers to lie down in a semi-reclining position, turning the cabin into a lounge for relaxation. The problem is that conventional seat belts and airbags are designed and tested only for a standard, upright body position. When a person is lying down, in a frontal collision, he simply slips under the belt, which leads to fatal internal tears and fractures. For this reason, the authorities have launched a public discussion on an urgent change in the requirements for passive safety in the interior.
These drastic steps are part of a much larger campaign by China against ill-conceived technological passions. Hidden door handles that get stuck in an accident, as well as giant touchscreens that distract attention from the road, have already fallen under the knife of regulators. At the same time, control over the life cycle of batteries is being tightened to the limit, including their safe dismantling and recycling at the end of their service life. It is clear that the gold rush in the electric vehicle market is over, and in its place comes the era of strict reason, where safety and efficiency are ranked higher than cheap marketing tricks.