Slow-Motion Crash Testing Footage Captures The Zen Of Automotive Destruction

Erin Marquis
47 minutes ago •

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We all love cars here, but there’s just something about the chaotic fiberglass origami they turn into during crash testing. It is undeniably beautiful and at times haunting. A Germans crash-testing company seems well aware of this particular aesthetic, as its latest set of crash testing videos were shot with the slowest of slo-mo cameras so you can revel in every tiny detail as it is flung from the body of a car.



Can you imagine if people were in there? Crash testers do. They have to. These videos come courtesy of DEKRA, the largest vehicle testing company in Germany and the third-largest in the world. Here’s a translation of the description of the video above:

In our current crash tests series, electric vehicles have confirmed their high level of safety. For a joint research project of DEKRA accident research and traffic accident research at the University Medical Center Göttingen, a Renault Zoe and three Nissan Leaf were crashed in the DEKRA Crash Test Center in Neumünster. The collisions with a pile simulated different scenarios of a tree impact. The speeds were far beyond those that are common in standard crash tests. Conclusion of the accident researchers: The tested electric vehicles are comparable to comparable conventionally driven vehicles in safety.

It sounds like owners of the Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf can sleep well knowing their cars can stand up pretty well to mighty trees at top speed from both side and front impacts.



Blamo! While super violent, the video is also kind of beautiful. DEKRA resisted the urge to put some soulful opera music underneath the footage, but it would totally work. And, while definitely not the kind of crash you’d want to be involved in, the passenger compartments of both cars are left in relatively solid condition, though such crashes definitely wouldn’t be fun to experience. It looks like new electric and fuel-efficient vehicles aren’t as dangerous as some world leaders would have you believe.