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@cstross @GreenFire Taking this thread even further afield: one complicating factor here is electric cars, battery packs are heavy!

From some quick math, the Tesla Model 3 has an envelope of 12.5m^3 but has a curb weight of nearly 1840kg. For comparison, the BMW X3 is 15m^3 and 1880kg, which is a 20% bigger envelope but only 2% more mass.

I've heard (but not verified) that part of the reason Teslas have such good safety reason is simply the fact that they're heavier - they have the inertia of an SUV in a sedan-sized package, so they win the inertia battle more than you would expect, with the bonus of a very low center of gravity.