Re: Battery placement

[et@enterprise.net]

On 15 Jan 2002 at 9:34, et@e... wrote:

>> So I was wondering, if all other considerations were 
>> secondary, what would be the "best" battery arrangement from 
>> safety viewpoints?
>
> For the sake of handling, as close as possible to the 
> vehicle's center of mass.   

Hmm, you're taking handling as a safety point, fair enough :)  
Can we concentrate on crashing for the moment?

> But batteries are good energy absorbers, and it's tempting to 
> use them as part of the crush space. When Commuter Vehicles 
> had to make the Citicar more crashworthy, they moved the 
> batteries from under the seat to behind the bumpers. This 
> improved the barrier crash performance, at the expense 
> of stability.

OK, that's really what I wanted to know.  Batteries as the 
crumplezone is a good idea then?  I'm not convinced.  And I 
don't suppose the citicar had very much crumplezone to start 
with, which is where we start to get bogged down in specific 
vehicles again.  

Thanks,
Evan