Transport Canada posted video footage from recent crash tests of the ZENN and what appears to be a GEM model to bolster their contention that LSVs represent a safety problem when mixing with regular vehicles on public roads. Transport Canada states that:
A low-speed vehicle may look like a car, but it is not a car. It is not required to meet the large number of safety standards (up to 40) that a regular passenger car must meet. The low speed vehicle class was originally intended for controlled low speed environments, like gated communities, where the risk of a LSV entering into a collision with a faster motor vehicle would be lower than on public roads. Transport Canada’s crash test results to date confirm that low speed vehicles provide a substantially lower level of occupant protection than conventional passenger cars.
According to The Gazette in Montreal, ZENN’s CEO Ian Clifford responded
Releasing these images without the statistical frame of reference is somewhat irresponsible on Transport Canada’s part. …Our assessment is that low-speed vehicles are among the safest vehicles on the road. I drive our vehicles all the time. I drive the vehicles with my children in them.
I contacted GEM to confirm if it is indeed a GEM model in the video and get their response to the testing but have not heard back from them, perhaps after the holiday.
I cannot get my mind around how difficult Transport Canada is being. There is so much real world experience with these vehicles that shows they are far less likely to get in an accident than faster moving vehicles and are from that perspective much safer. Evaluating vehicles for all around safety is more than just putting them in a crash test. And there are degrees of safety: it’s also true that if you were on a bike and got T-boned by an SUV you’d be more likely to be killed; but then again a relatively small percentage of bicycle riders get killed every year compared to car drivers/passengers, so why is that?
NEVs are proven to be in the balance safer than other vehicles for people riding in them and obviously for people outside of them than faster cars or SUVs. Transport Canada should be giving people a balanced view of this category of vehicles and stop this campaign of trying to kill this growing industry in Canada.