The ‘Bowling Ball Test’ Isn’t Real, But There Is Something Somewhat Like It: COTD

If you’ve been reading the news surrounding cars and politics, you might have heard the leader of our nation say something about “Japan’s bowling ball test.” In the President’s retelling of the test, a bowling ball is dropped on a car’s hood from 20 feet, and if the hood dents, the cars fail. Apparently, this is a form of non-tariff “cheating” because American cars can’t pass it, maybe?

Matt wrote an excellent Morning Dump covering news about how the Slate Auto EV is built. It also notes that the ‘Bowling Ball Test’ isn’t a thing, but some countries do simulate hitting a pedestrian using a rounded object, but dents are actually a good thing. Reader 4moremazdas had great insight:

Ooh, This article is great for my previous life at Honda.

1. No paint and no stamping – this is potentially a really groundbreaking cost-savings. Most stampings that make up a complete whitebody come from outside suppliers. However, OEM’s tend to keep the “A-class” surface stampings in house – meaning the door skins, hood, roof, etc that a customer sees. Then all the welding and paint has to be done in-house as well. “No paint” isn’t quite right, as they’ll still need to do E-coat on the whitebody, but this might make it so they can have a stamping supplier weld up and e-coat components before shipping.

2. “Bowling ball test” – This is one that was really difficult for us for reliability/durability, especially on the hood. There is a pedestrian safety standard which uses a bowling ball shaped indenter that is pressed in a grid across the entire surface of the hood. It’s to simulate a human head contacting the hood in a pedestrian collision and the requirements are that each location be “soft” enough that it will minimize risk of injury or death. This was a very difficult test to work with as a reliability engineer, since we needed more rigidity, not less. Anyway, any new Honda meets these requirements already.

Check this out:

Mike Harrell gets two COTD nominations today. Mike first appears in David’s piece about how his old BMW i3 has a Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer as a best friend now:

David: Now THAT’S a great two-car garage right there — one great commuter and one that is the very opposite!

Mike: In fairness, the i3 is probably also okay as a commuter.

Mike shows up again in Jason’s review of the Chevy Blazer EV SS:

Jason: …a Lotus isn’t going to take six months’ worth of Costco smoked salmon and a bale of Kirkland-brand underpants back home with your partner and two kids in the car, is it? No, it isn’t.

Mike: Well, no, not with that defeatist attitude it isn’t.

Finally, the Jeff Bezos-funded Slate Auto is already getting hit with Amazon jokes. Fez Whatley comments in Huibert’s excellent Slate truck suspension piece:

Been saving up all my Amazon gift cards for this truck.

Have a great evening, everyone!