The crashworthiness indicators are a key parameter for assessing the effectiveness of energy absorbers and these in turn are highly dependent on the initial phase of the crumple process and triggering mechanism. In classical designs, indentations or holes are made at a specific location to improve the triggering performance, however, the effects are limited and often unsatisfactory. This paper proposes an innovative, original solution for a column energy absorber that significantly improves the triggering parameters and relies on the introduction of smooth changes in material properties along the column axis through the use of specially localized annealing and cooling with specific parameters in its manufacturing process. The veracity of the idea presented was warranted by an experiment from which the characteristics of crushing force vs. shortening were obtained, which in turn were used to calculate crashworthiness indicators. Results confirm extremely good energy-absorbing properties of the proposed solution compared to the classic ones.