De-powered: GM’s Chevy Volt fire begs serious questions
Is the Volt's battery really safe?
Shouldn’t there have always been a de-powering protocol?
I would have no problem buying a Chevy Volt today — if it were cheaper — despite the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration’s formal investigation into Volt fire risk after an accident (more). I honestly don’t believe the Volt is a serious fire risk, but I do think that GM — and perhaps all EV makers — might have missed some due diligence.
But is that really cause for plug-in worries?
It is well-documented that lithium-ion batteries pose thermodynamic risk, and companies like GM have spent countless hours and dollars doing almost everything possible to mitigate and contain such risk, almost everything.
Still, it remains unclear whether GM should have foreseen whether or not some sort of de-powering protocol needed to be established before sales of the Volt began. Perhaps, GM thoroughly believed such de-powering was unnecessary. Or, maybe they just overlooked this important issue.
Regardless, today GM now offers a de-powering team that will travel to any Volt crash to de-power the battery, but is that really a very cost-effective mitigation strategy? Could this issue be resolved via technology in the future, or will someone always have to de-power the battery after the crash of a lithium-powered vehicle?
I assume there will be quality solutions to the problem of de-powering heading into the future, and such problems really should be expected. There are bugs in all new technologies. Software updates are simply part of the modern world.
Of course, it’s possible that GM simply screwed up.
Surely, such safety concerns will dissuade some from purchasing a Volt or another EV. Ironically, however, most consumers aren’t really ready to buy a plug-in vehicle yet anyway. Fortunately, when plug-in prices are no longer in need of tax credits and much cheaper, Volt fire risk will long be forgotten and battery vehicles will be as safe — if not safer — than conventional vehicles.
Just to keep things in perspective here.. similar types of batteries have been and are in used in laptops and cell phones – and yes there have been fires – but no one is talking about abandoning the manufacture and sales of laptops or cell phones.
all new/newer technologies have issues that have to be worked through.
here’s a real example of how this happens:
” Refrigerators from the late 1800s until 1929 used the toxic gases ammonia (NH3), methyl chloride (CH3Cl), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) as refrigerants. Several fatal accidents occurred in the 1920s when methyl chloride leaked out of refrigerators. ”
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrefrigerator.htm
we ought not to let the bumps along the way keep us from moving forward.
The Chinese developped an electrical car a few years before the Volt. The government rebate was $9,000 per car. I read about that car in regular media. The car had better features than the Volt in range (Over 100 miles on electric charge) and room, and its engine looked like very high tech.
At some point they experienced fire that was caused by the batteries, and as a result they decided to go back to using older fashion batteries.
Seems that we are so smug here- we will not learn from others’ mistakes. No one ever mentions that Chinese experience with their electric car project. Google this and be shocked: We did not pioneer this in the West.
well…. except in a wreck where fuel lines and battery cases are shattered….
but that is true of ordinary ICE cars also… in a wreck.. you may well see “sparking” of electrical components and it’s not impossible for squashed fuel lines to be vulnerable to ignition.
but to me..it seems like every time a defect is uncovered… (like the latest flap over Honda air bags)… a certain number of people get all atwitter about it and make more of it than it really is.
ALL man-made stuff is subject to flaws… whether it be aircraft or your home furnace or the pills you take….
I agree.. the line does get crossed.. and people should shy away from products that have a demonstrated pattern of flaws but somehow we have to put in context – flaws in general.
life has always been a crap shoot… anyhow.
“”In my family we have had 5 vehicles catch fire over the years.
2 GM’s
1 Ford
2 Chryslers
3 were caused by electrical issues.
2 were caused by overheating.
None of those were considered a defect or were part of any recall…. How come????”"
Because by virtue of the fact that IC cars use fuel that’s combustible. EV’s are supposed to not carry fuel…the Volt still does.
In IC cars, electrical issues usually escalate to fires once the ignition to a fuel source is found. Of course we do have LiI issues that self-combust but in general battery fires are less prone to spreading that fuel related fires.
thanks for the update SMURF….
boy the numbers seems to have changed!
let us know what happens… next ..your impressions…etc..
My Chevy Volt Order Update…..
My Volt is still on a train (in Texas I think) but I have already gone to the dealer and signed all the paperwork.
Here are things I’ve learned once I finally got all the real world numbers from my dealer:
1. The lease price is a littler higher than $350 with the options I selected, as the base price is higher (I expected this). Base lease price is closer to $400 now with typical options and a standard down payment. I made a larger down payment and lowered the monthly price for my lease.
2. The buyout cost for a $42,000 Volt is about $29,000 at the end of a 36 month lease. I had read news articles that reported that Kelly Blue Book or Consumer reports estimated the value of the volt at $17,000 after 3 years. This is obviously not true. It looks like Chevy Volts will definitely hold their value after 3 years. (Or at least Chevy thinks so…)
3. The delay from the time my Volt production was completed in Michigan until the time the Volt is shipped and arrives at my dealer in Arizona is going to be about 6 weeks. If this is true for all Volt orders, it may be contributing to lower than expected sales numbers. We’ll have to see if this changes over time….
My dealer suspects my Volt will arrive next week. I’ll let you know once I go and pick it up.
To be continued……
because when you have electrical systems in close proximity to fuel – bad stuff sometimes happens.
what we don’t really do here on issues like this is put a bigger context on it which I think is important and that is what is the percentage of incidents verses overall numbers?
if a particular car model ends up with a higher than average incidence.. then more investigation is warranted.
EVs are fairly new and we do know that lithium batteries can have problems… remember the laptop batteries issue?
when there is a wreck…. by the way… gas tanks and gas lines are always a concern when trying to extract the occupants with rescue equipment.
one of the things that is routinely done is to assess whether or not leaking fuel is involved.
With a EV – new procedures will have to be developed to ascertain …in a similar way..whether or not the battery has been damaged and if so.. how to mitigate the threat.
Finally… if I had my choice between a wrecked vehicle having it’s battery catch fire or having the vehicle enveloped in flaming gasoline.. it’s no contest.
it helps a lot to put these issues in context IMHO.
In my family we have had 5 vehicles catch fire over the years.
2 GM’s
1 Ford
2 Chryslers
3 were caused by electrical issues.
2 were caused by overheating.
None of those were considered a defect or were part of any recall…. How come????
much ado about little…. IMHO. remembering back over the years…. the Toyota mess.. Ford Police cars, Ford ambulances…. Pintos… diesel dogs… etc, etc…
I call this “media churn” and “wishful thinkers”
Dahc,
I agree this will not dissuade potential EV buyers, but I expect to see a lot of folks who do “not” want to buy an EV use this as an exuse. I will assume anyone using this as an excuse, already did not want to buy an EV…
It is not surprising with new technology (Lithium batteries with battery cooling systems), that new issues might arise. I am curious if GM simply ignored this or is it something they never thought of. We’ll never know I suspect….
But if fire risk is a big concern, I suspect you don’t drive ANY vehicles then.
ICE’s been dealing with the risk of fire for for the past 100 years, and with all the improvements and procedures they’ve made the last 100 years, we still have over 250,000 ICE vehicles catch fire every year in the US.
If you look at ICE history, there have been a few ICE vehicles over the years that presented higher risks than others.Ford Pinto, Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors are two I remember off the top of my head. The risk with these vehicles was much more more severe than the Volt. These vehicles had a risk of immediate fire “on impact”, not a week later while sitting in a junk yard.
So far, the only Chevy Volt fires have been in testing, and the fires did not happen immeditely. In the real world, there have been zero Chevy Volt fires. I realize that there are so few Volts on the road, but the number is still zero. I am curious as more Chevy Volts hit the streets, what the percentage of fires will be compared to ICE vehicles. Unfortunately, since the Volt has gotten caught up into main stream US politics, even ONE fire is a political nightmare…
In the end, I was not dissuaded. I should be picking up my Volt within the next week or two. If it catches on fire, I’ll let you know right away….