Hafei Saibao EV passes crash test; good news for Miles' XS500

Sometimes a tiny nugget of information with sizable implications can slip by in the truckloads of news we sift through everyday. Just yesterday, for instance, there was a small mention in the China Real News of an "high-speed Hafei Saibao electric car" passing an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash test. Big deal, right? Well, yes and no. A little digging helped us uncover that the test wasn't actually conducted by the IIHS but rather by the China National Quality Control & Inspection Center for Automobiles and was meant to replicate the IIHS 40 percent frontal offset impact. Still no biggie until you realize that this car also very likely goes by the name of XS500 and that Miles Electric Vehicles is planning on selling it in the U.S. sometime next year. One of the worries about importing cars from China has been their past crash test performance (or lack thereof) and this test offers some insight into how well the XS500 may do when it comes time for its testing over here.

So, how did it fare? After a little more digging we found out it did quite well. After hitting the barrier at 40 mph, the injuries to the crash dummy were "lower than standard limited values" (We're pretty sure that's good). All the expensive stuff, including the lithium ion batteries, motor and controller survived intact and were still operable as well. There was no mention made of any side impact or other tests which vehicles must pass to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and although Miles declined to comment on the progress of their testing, this small tidbit does offer up some hope that their XS500 may indeed make it to the American market.

[Source: EV World / China Real News]