2 weeks Ago
Vehicle submersion is terrifying. If you’re like me, the concept of accidentally driving into a lake or river is a bone-chilling fact that lingers in the back of your mind. The risks aren’t even as low as you’d think, either; some data shows that vehicle drownings could account for as many as 400 deaths per year in the United States.
If I were to find myself in the front seat of a car fastly filling up with water, what the heck would I even do? In a high-stress situation, I know that I personally would not be strong enough nor have the wherewithal to shatter a window in a sinking car. Also, like most drivers, I don’t have any sort of window-breaking tools to even achieve that task. But, it looks like Zeekr has thought of that.
Its latest SUV, the 7X, has a feature built “to address urban flooding and the dangers of water ingress”, the Zeekr 7X comes with a lever that lets the driver break its window in case of a flood. Zeekr says it’s an industry-first feature. I reached out to Zeekr’s communication staff to better understand how the feature works.
They gave me a better explanation and sent two videos demonstrating exactly how the car can break its glass. In the driver’s door, there’s a removable panel directly under the driver’s window switches. In the alcove is a lever – pull the lever, and it pulls a dedicated window-breaking hammer that hits the bottom of the window glass attached to the window regulator and motor in the door panel itself.
Zeekr representative Paul Cheng says the feature is designed to be accessible. It only needs 50 newtons (about 11 lbs) of force to trigger. Yet, the hammer itself can displace 3,000 newtons (674 lbs) of force to shatter the window.
Cheng says this is about 33 times the impact strength of a typical safety hammer or the equivalent of five adult males smashing into the window at once. Also, because the window breaker is mechanical, it remains working when the car inevitably shuts down from being engulfed with water. It’s not just theoretical, either.
To test the feature, Zeekr drove a 7X into a lake with a member of China’s Blue Sky Rescue team, one of China’s biggest volunteer search and rescue operations. The car was nearly completely submerged within a minute. But, even with the car nearly submerged and the electronics not functioning, the window breaker functioned and the rescue agent was able to swim out.
Zeekr says that all 7X’s will have this feature standard. Of course, we’ve already covered 7X here at InsideEVs before. It’s a midsize-ish luxury crossover aimed at cars like the Onvo L60 and the Tesla Model Y.
Prices start at roughly $32,000 for a single-motor 7X, which shares most of its battery and motor equipment with the very-good Zeekr 007 sedan. Embargoed reviews are already out, and they’re generally positive. I’ve reached out to Zeekr again, to understand if the brand has plans to implement this life-saving feature on the rest of its lineup, or on other Geely-associated brands.
I think a standard window-breaker would be great for Volvo or Polestar, two brands that really push the safety of their cars and have the goal of protecting the mortality of its drivers. It feels like a no-brainer. It’s also interesting to notice that Zeekr’s press release directly says that the feature was implemented to “to address urban flooding.
” Climate change is real; i n 2021, NASA found that the amount of people living in flood-prone areas increased 20 to 24% since 2000. True, part of it is due to erosion of coastlines and rising sea levels, but much of it has to do with more extreme weather events causing floods in areas that weren’t prone to flooding before. Zeekr’s implementation seems both simple and effective.
What if we implemented, or even mandated this on cars here in the United States? I think the lives saved would be worth it, vehicle submersion is no joke. Far too many lives have been lost in ways that could have been prevented. Contact the author: kevin.
[email protected].
