Chevy Volt Fire Prompts Safety Investigation For EV Batteries 225
Three weeks after undergoing a crash test, a Chevy Volt caught fire. The car's battery was determined as the cause of the fire, though GM said its protocols for deactivating the battery following a crash would have prevented it. Either way, the National Highway Traffic Safety Association is now on the case. They're planning additional testing of the batteries, though they were quick to say, "Based on the available data, N.H.T.S.A. does not believe the Volt or other electric vehicles are at a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles. In fact, all vehicles — both electric and gasoline-powered — have some risk of fire in the event of a serious crash." According to the president of an engineering firm, "If a lithium battery is pierced by steel, a chemical reaction will take place that starts raising the temperature and can result in a fire... If the piercing is small, that reaction can take days or weeks to occur."
I smell a rat! (Score:0, Funny)
Batteries are dangerous. They contain high concentrations of ions, which unlike natural atoms, have un-balanced electronic charges, and can cause all sorts of chemical reactions. Why are we Americans putting all kinds of unbalanced atoms into the cars that carry our wives and babies to and from Church? Chevrolet better check and make sure thereare no Italian saboteurs or infiltrators at the engineering plant or the assembly line.
Re:Why have Americans become nancies? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, is it nancies or sissies? Make up your mind. We Americans also have little tolerance for flip-floppers such as yourself.
Castle (Score:5, Funny)
I give it two years, any other guesses?
Re:redesign needed - http://lkcl.net/ev (Score:5, Funny)
My cousin's ex-eyebrows are interested in your views on the safety of gasoline and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Rgds
Damon
Re:Castle (Score:5, Funny)
How long before we see a TV show or mystery novelist use an intentional puncturing of a battery to kill someone weeks later?
OTOH, if EV's really take over, then Micheal Bay is toast. Waiting 3 weeks after a collision for the big kaboom is going to wreck havoc on what little plot line his movies have.
Re:Why have Americans become nancies? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:let's forbid EV Batteries (Score:5, Funny)
Lets face it if you rode up to the regulators today on your horse and said: "I have a new idea for a product. It will be a giant metal shell on wheels. People will sit in it and move at 60km/h in opposite directions on a narrow road only a meter appart. The metal shell will become the subject of about half of your efforts to control how people use it. Best of all it runs on a highly volatile mixture of hydrocarbons."
There's no way a car could be invented today.