What happens when you drop a Chery Exeed Exlantix ET from 32 meters?

Khodrocar - Crash tests follow a pretty strict format and for that reason they’ve often come in for criticism that cars have safety measures purely engineered for tests. One of the nightmare scenarios for many is driving your car off a cliff. Obviously it doesn’t happen much in everyday life but people can’t but help but worry. Chery also seemed curious and so it dropped a Chery Exeed Exlantix ET from a height of 32 meters. Sales of the Chery Exeed Exlantix ET will commence on May 9.

In the test Chery hoisted an Exeed Exlantix ET electric SUV to a height of 32 meters with a crane and then released the lifting cable with the car falling vertically and the front slamming into the ground. The fall from height test is an extreme automotive safety assessment simulating what would happen if a vehicle drove off the road at an altitude. It can test the structural strength and ability to protect occupants under extreme crash conditions.

Previous tests such as ones carried out before by Volvo have usually used a height of 30 meters but Chery upped the distance to 32 meters. This was not only in order to challenge the safety standards of joint venture brands but also showed Chery’s confidence in its own technical standards.

From the video we can see the result where the front of the ES was badly smashed. However, the passenger compartment withstood the impact with very little damage. There appeared to be little to no damage of the pillars and the doors opened normally.

The Chery Exeed Exlantix ET is the brand’s flagship all electric and extended range EV mid-large sized SUV which started pre-sales last month. It measure in at 4955, 1975, 1698 mm (l/w/h) with a wheelbase of 3000 mm and uses the E0X high-performance electric platform. Pre-sale prices range from 199,000 to 329,000 yuan (27,550-45,600 USD).

Range extended versions use a 195 kW motor on the rear axle together with a 1.5T engine for charging. All electric version use a 230 kW motor at the rear and all wheel drive versions add a 123 kW motor to the front.

The car uses the Shenxing battery from CATL which has the ability to add 400 km range (CLTC) in ten minutes. It is a 4C battery meaning it can charge four times faster than older battery technology, most significantly it does this while using cheaper and allegedly safer lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery chemistry.