Getting the 2027 Chevrolet Bolt EV to showrooms after it was killed and resurrected required a lot of creativity. General Motors’ flip-flop on the affordable EV meant moving an assembly line and hoarding parts to build prototypes in order to restart production as quickly as possible. But as the Bolt’s chief engineer Jeremy Short explained to The Drive, there was another surprising key to meeting the tight deadline: virtual crash testing.
Virtual crash testing is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of bending metal, engineers run simulations with complete 3D models of a car. These are based on commercially-available software with some of GM’s own add-ons, correlated to real-world testing of specific components like airbags and seats. These software tools have been in use for a while, but for the 2027 Bolt EV, engineers were so confident in them that they mostly dispensed with crashing pre-production ca …
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Author: Stephen Edelstein
