Electric vehicles (EVs) aren’t more dangerous for pedestrians than petrol or diesel-powered cars, according to a new University of Leeds study published in Nature Communications. Tech Xplore tells that researchers analyzed U.K. crash data from 2019 to 2023 using the Department for Transport’s STATS19 database. When collisions are measured per billion miles driven, pedestrian casualty rates for EVs (57.8) were nearly the same as for conventional vehicles (58.9). The study also found that injuries to pedestrians struck by EVs weren’t more severe, despite EVs weighing more due to heavy battery packs.
Two concerns have swirled around EVs and pedestrian safety. One is that the quiet operation of EVs might make them harder for people to hear at low speeds. Since July 2019, new EVs and hybrids have been required to include Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems (AVAS) to emit sound at low speeds, addressing this issue. The other worry was that the extra battery weight could worsen injuries in a collision, but the new data didn’t support that.
The research distinguished between fully electric vehicles and hybrids, which past studies often grouped together. This distinction matters: hybrid vehicles showed a higher pedestrian casualty rate (about 120 per billion miles) in the same dataset. Authors suggest this is likely due to hybrids being used more as private hire vehicles in urban settings, where interactions with pedestrians are more frequent. However, even with more collisions, hybrid-linked injuries tended to be less severe than those from conventional cars.
The study didn’t break down risks by vehicle size beyond propulsion type, but it noted that larger vehicles such as SUVs increase the likelihood of severe pedestrian injury regardless of whether they’re electric or petrol-powered. Experts say the results should reassure the public and policymakers that EV adoption for environmental reasons doesn’t appear to compromise pedestrian safety.