Friday, November 11, 2011

No Wonder No One Buys Chevy Volts Except Governments

Chevy Volts have not been accepted by the public. The government- State, Local and Federal governments are about the only one's buying Volts and here is another reason why Volts are dangerous.
From Firehouse.com: A Chevrolet Volt that caught fire three weeks after its lithium-ion battery was damaged in a government crash test has regulators taking a harder look at the safety of electric car batteries, federal officials said Friday.
But based on testing so far, regulators believe the batteries are safe and don't pose a greater fire risk than gasoline-powered engines, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official told The Associated Press. The official requested anonymity in order to speak freely.
The car that caught fire was tested May 12 by an agency contractor at a Wisconsin facility using a relatively new side-impact test intended to replicate crashing into a pole or a tree, the official said. Three weeks later, while the car was parked at the test facility, it caught fire. A NHTSA investigation concluded the crash test damaged the battery, which later led to the fire.
Lithium-ion batteries, which are used in a vast array of consumer electronics, have a history of sometimes catching fire when damaged.
GM spokesman Greg Martin said the test did not follow procedures developed by GM engineers for handling the Volt after a crash. The engineers tested the Volt's battery pack for more than 300,000 hours to come up with the procedures, which include discharge and disposal of the battery pack, he said.
http://www.firehouse.com/topic/training/electric-car-catches-fire-after-federal-crash-test
In the real world, people who have been in accidents may not follow what engineers from GM want them to do.
The Volts are unsafe to drive, they are unsafe to firefighters responding to an accident, they are unsafe after an accident and with all the batteries, they are dangerous to the environment.
And yet, governments continue to buy them. Why?

No comments:

Post a Comment