Are Electric Vehicles Safer Than Gas?

When looking for a new car, you could be wondering if electric vehicles are safer than traditional gas vehicles. Safety is paramount in picking a vehicle — and for good reason. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), approximately 40,000 people died in automobile collisions in 2016, up 6 percent through the year prior. So, are electric vehicles safer than gas vehicles?

According to Bachus & Schanker, 6.2 million car crashes occur yearly. The number of highway crashes which have resulted in fires has dropped throughout the last thirty years from nearly half a million in 1980 to 174,000 in 2015, with all the sharpest drop happening since 2007. Some of that drop might be attributed to improvements in fuel injector technology along with safety features within modern vehicles. But the increased incidence of electric vehicles on America’s roads is perhaps making roads safer! Because they are powered by batteries as an alternative to flammable gasoline, electric vehicles employ a lower probability of fire than their gas counterparts. Granted, lithium-ion batteries — what type used in electric vehicles — can burn, but there’s an incredibly low likelihood of this happening in comparison with gas vehicles. And due to the recent improvements in lithium-ion technology, we’ll likely see even fewer electric vehicle fires within the years to come.

Air Quality

Electric vehicles will also be safer than gas vehicles for the reason that don’t produce emissions. When a traditional gas vehicle burns fuel, it generates exhaust gasses like deadly carbon monoxide and co2 as a byproduct. In addition to polluting the atmosphere, these exhaust gasses promote illness and disease.

According to check out cited by The Sacramento Bee, roughly 9,000 people die on a yearly basis from experience airborne particulate matter. In other words, the thick smog made by gas-burning cars and trucks fills the oxygen and subsequently results in fatal illnesses like coronary disease and cancer. Electric vehicles don’t produce any emissions. They are completely green and beneficial to our environment.