Electric-car safety tests faulted

Experts have questioned whether the mainland's safety tests for electric cars were rigorous enough after an electric taxi burst into flames, killing three, when it was struck from the rear by a speeding sports car.

The e6 electric taxi made by the Shenzhen-based company BYD was destroyed by fire following the collision early on Saturday, killing its driver and two passengers.

Experts said tests used to measure the all-electric car's ability to survive collisions were not conducted at a speed high enough to simulate the most severe real-life crashes.

Wang Zidong , who is in charge of car-battery testing at the China North Vehicle Research Institute, told the Economic Information Daily that collision tests for mainland-made electric car batteries were only conducted at speeds between 40km/h and 70km/h and that manufacturers had not considered crashes at speeds in excess of 100km/h. A witness was quoted as saying the car that rammed the taxi was doing between 150km/h and 200 km/h.

'If you look at the spontaneous-combustion accidents of [mainland-made] electric cars, surely there are many technical defects and areas that need to be improved,' said Wang, who has done collision tests at 50 km/h for BYD's electric cars.

Wang said collision tests in excess of 100km/h could take one to two years to complete and required the destruction of many more cars than at present. 'Mainland companies aren't willing to do it,' he said.

BYD said its electric cars had been fully tested in accordance with national standards and complied with all regulations. It said that in more than two years there had been 18 rear-end collisions involving its electric taxis, with no injuries or fatalities reported, nor had any car caught fire.