[bwilson4web]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20111...t-battery-fire

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday it is investigating fire risks in the electric Chevrolet Volt because one caught fire three weeks after its battery was damaged in a government crash test.
The Volt fire has prompted NHTSA to take a broader look at the safety and procedures for dealing with electric-vehicle batteries after crashes.

. . .
After the crash test, NHTSA found a damaged battery and coolant leak and sent the car to a storage lot. Unlike a crash test with a gasoline engine, where the tank would be drained, the battery remained charged.

GM believes that after sitting for three weeks, exposed to the weather, the coolant crystallized and interacted with the battery, causingthe fire, said GM spokesman Rob Peterson.

In a normal crash, the coolant interacting with a Volt battery would not cause a fire, he said.

GM's protocol is to drain the battery of energy after a crash, but the automaker hadn't informed NHTSA at the time of the test, the company said. In an actual roadway crash, GM would have been notified via OnStar and would have removed the battery for research.


From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20111112/...#ixzz1dTLoeqMu

Battery fires are serious as are gasoline fires and electrical.

Not to minimize a risks but this is likely to be the 'something new' blown out of proportion. If a car crashes, the gasoline should be drained. That is what the GM engineers recommended for the battery, discharge the battery.

Bob Wilson

[troyblake]

A Chevy Volt was utilized in federal crash checks earlier this year and put into storage, where it ignited several weeks after being used in tests. A safety investigation is being started into whether the batteries in the Volt pose a possible security hazard. Source of article: Safety investigation into Chevy Volt fire under way.Let's just wait for the result of investigation to know what's the truth about this.

[bwilson4web]

troyblake said:

. . . .Let's just wait for the result of investigation to know what's the truth about this.

As a general rule of thumb, I agree but an article that came out today: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...c-cars/249288/

. . . The National Highway Transit Safety Administration announced its official inquiry on Friday, but the issue had been building up for months. It first emerged back in May, when a Chevy Volt caught fire three weeks after a side-impact crash test. The test involved slamming the car into a pole, rolling it over to simulate a particularly nasty accident, and leaving it to sit in storage, where it eventually went up in flames. The NHTSA concluded that damage to the car's lithium ion battery was responsible. It ran three additional tests where they beat up a few batteries in a lab, two of which eventually caught on fire, as well. . . .

The drip-drip of information leaking out is keeping this story on the 'front' page of Google news. I respect the energy in a battery but the legs on this story suggests it is being blown out of proportion. Like the old 'laptops catching on fire,' I'm interested but not impressed. Eventually, there will be something in Spectrum or other technical sources and we'll get some facts and data. Right now, it reads too much like someone trying to incite FUD.

Bob Wilson