Ah, crash tests. In case you didn't know, crash tests are part of an automobile's life cycle. Before cars hit the bright lights of showrooms and roll off dealerships, they get destroyed first to make sure that they're safe enough to withstand any form of accident.
Yes, the process was ugly before it gets pretty, and that's all in the name of safety. For Nissan, the all-new Ariya takes center stage in a series of crash tests that are accompanied by a slow-motion video.
The footage, which we embedded above, shows the all-electric crossover taking all the impact at fractions of a second. You can clearly see in the video how the body of the vehicle absorbed the impact and how its airbags worked in relation to timing, saving the crash test dummies' lives.
Apart from the frontal-, side- and rear-impact collisions, Nissan also showcased how the car reacts to accidents involving pedestrians on the road. Led by Nissan’s Passive Safety Evaluation Group, the tests make sure that the company can measure the force of an impact on the vehicle’s body and structural components. The effects on the driver and passengers (through the test dummies and various shapes and sizes) are measured through multiple sensors.
"More than 100 data points are evaluated on the Ariya," said Gen Tanabe of the Passive Safety Evaluation Group. "Because the upcoming Ariya will be sold in many markets, we will conduct more than 400 tests from the early stages of development to market launch."
The 2023 Nissan Ariya starts at $45,950 in the US, with deliveries happening this fall for the front-wheel-drive versions. Nissan has opened the reservation lanes for the Ariya as early as November 2021.
