However, not all collisions are at highway speed. Most collisions are at relatively low speed, where weight is an even more significant factor in the energy involved. There are tradeoffs you can make between weight contributed by safety equipment (e.g. bumpers), but to a large extent those tradeoffs are mandated by regulations rather than consumers or OEM engineers.
[1] https://www.moneygeek.com/insurance/auto/analysis/pedestrian... [2] https://www.nber.org/digest/nov11/vehicle-weight-and-automot...
In a direct collision between a moving 1000kg car going 10 m/s and a stationary 50kg person, the person will end up moving somewhere between 9.5 m/s (perfectly inelastic collision) and 19.05 m/s (perfectly elastic). The car will end up moving 9.5 m/s (perfectly inelastic) and 9.05 m/s (perfectly elastic).
In a direct collision between a moving 10000kg car going 10 m/s and a stationary 50kg person, the person will end up moving 9.95 m/s (perfectly inelastic) and 19.90 m/s (perfectly elastic). The car will end up moving somewhere between 9.95 m/s (perfectly inelastic) and 9.90 m/s (perfectly elastic).
Even though we 10x'd the weight of the car, we only increased the velocity of the person after impact by about 5%, and energy imparted on the person by about 10%.
I suspect vehicle size (or rather, the size/shape of the front of the vehicle) has way more effect on pedestrian survivability than the weight of the vehicle. SUVs and trucks will impart the force of impact directly to your torso and head, and then subsequently run you over. Sedans hit you in the legs and then roll you over the top of the vehicle.
Why do seemingly so people here understand clipping functions?
The lethality of a pedestrian-vehicle collision with a 4,000lb vehicle at 60MPH and a 400,000lb vehicle at 60MPH are both 1
In practical terms, the additional weight of an EV has zero effect on pedestrian collision lethality, whereas something like bumper design would.