Polestar 1 Crash Test Proves that Carbon Fiber Bodies can Tolerate Collisions Well

Polestar recently conducted crash tests of its Polestar 1 prototype which demonstrated that carbon fiber bodies can demonstrate high levels of tolerance when it comes to collisions. Volvo cars are known to be highly reliable when it comes to safety and it looks like Polestar will also develop the same reputation though it used carbon fiber to a much higher level than steel for the body of the Polestar 1.

Polestar recently released a short video of a front collision test that the company conducted for its 600 horsepower hybrid Polestar 1. The test was held at the Volvo Car Group crash testing facilities in Gothenburg, Sweden.

For the body of the Polestar 1, the company extensively used carbon fiber for reinforcing the vehicle’s body. Polestar had to make modifications to the design based on the properties of carbon fiber.

In the event that the use of carbon fiber proves to be successful, Volvo is planning to use the material in other Volvo and Polestar models.

During the crash test that Polestar conducted, the car was shot down a 157 meter track, or about 515 feet. It hit the wall at a speed of about 35 mph. The main information that the safety engineers wanted to get was if the carbon fiber body would react to the collision in the same way that their previous mockups had indicated.

While steel wraps and bends in a collision, carbon fiber shatters and cracks to dissipate energy. Hence, the design of the front crumple zone needed to be totally different.

Polestar said that most of the impact energy was absorbed by the designed crash structure, while the rest of the energy of the crash was mitigated and absorbed by the carbon body panels. According to the company, these panels did not show any signs of misalignment or warping. Thus, the frontal impact test has proved to be successful.