Feds to study fire risks in EV batteries

[arondaniel]

Batteries in Electric Cars Examined After Chevy Volt Fire

Regulators Examine Electric Car Batteries After Fire - NYTimes.com

According to TFA, they didn't follow GM's procedure to disable the battery after a crash. Just goes to show though... with a new technology there will be road bumps and perceived safety is a big deal.

I hope Tesla is way out in front of this. A 5-star rating won't help much with a reactionary press and a couple isolated incidents. From Tesla website: "In the event of a crash, the battery structure protects cells from impact and automatically disconnects the power supply". Anyone know if the Volt has such a safety feature?

 

[mpt]

FYI, slightly OT but it's been confirmed; the cause of the fire in North Carolina was not the Volt Fire Marshal Says NC Garage Fire Started Away From Chevy Volt: Exclusive

 

[VolkerP]

The article mentions that experts from GM "rescued the black box" from the destroyed Volt.
Will Model S have a black box, too?
A black box constitutes for me
1 logging all data relevant for disaster reconstruction
2 designed to survive crash, shock, fire, submersion (to some extend)
3 manufacturer trains experts (own/NHTSA) how to salvage the unit and how to extract the logged data

It can be a dedicated device or a hardened part of on board controller unit.

 

[dpeilow]

The timing of the original story in this thread now matches up with that post crash test fire. All becomes clear.

 

[dpeilow]

Good story on ABG

A sensible response to crashed Chevy Volt fire at NHTSA as GM updates rules

 

[Tommy]

(Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators are opening a formal investigation into fire risks in General Motors' Volt vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday.

The NHTSA said it was taking the action after recreation this month of a May crash test resulted in fires in two out of three tests.

Link to story:
U.S. opening formal probe into GM Volt fire risk - Yahoo! News

 

[Lloyd]

Link to story:
U.S. opening formal probe into GM Volt fire risk - Yahoo! News

I hope they are honest and compare it to risk of fire in fuel tanks!

 

[vfx]

Shooting a bullet into an EV battery pack in a Hollywood Movie will engulf the car in a lightening display of bolts of Tesla-coil style electricity. The death of the Id comes to mind.

 

[doug]

Was reviewing this thread due to the recent Fisker Karma fire.

Shooting a bullet into an EV battery back in a Hollywood Movie will engulf the car in a lightening display of bolts of Tesla-coil style electricity. The death of the Id comes to mind.

Just noticed and wanted to acknowledge the Forbidden Planet Id monster reference. :smile:

 

[vfx]

Wasn't there a similar electomonsterdeath in The Golden Child? Or was it Howard the Duck?

Nothing beat the Disneyesque Id monster though. Terrifyingly cute.

 

[vfx]

Thursday | May 31, 2012


America's love affair with the automobile has like many relationships come with some tradeoffs. For the past 100 years drivers of conventionally fueled Internal [FONT=inherit !important][FONT=inherit !important]Combustion [FONT=inherit !important]Engine[/FONT] (ICE) automobiles have been comfortable with the idea of hauling around a couple of hundred sticks of dynamite in the trunk of their cars. Like having a significant-other that is perfect in every way except they smoke cigarettes or have a tendency to explode over the littlest things, we have comfortably settled into a codependency with ICEs that statistically catch fire on U.S. roads every 186 seconds.[/FONT]
Chinese fireworks give hope

Now with tens of thousands of US made Electric Vehicles (EVs) on the road and that number soon to grow exponentially, it's about time they catch up with [FONT=inherit !important][FONT=inherit !important]gasoline[/FONT] fueled vehicles. In order to even approach the flammability of petroleum the [FONT=inherit !important][FONT=inherit !important]electric [/FONT][FONT=inherit !important]car[/FONT][/FONT] movement will have to step up their “burst factor” by ten or more or they will never be accepted as a viable transportation alternative. Now a recent horrific crash into a Chinese made EV shows that with a sufficiently high speed rear-ending that [FONT=inherit !important][FONT=inherit !important]combustion[/FONT][/FONT] is eventually possible.

Flame anxiety[/FONT]
An unnamed source at one [FONT=inherit !important][FONT=inherit !important]electric [FONT=inherit !important]car [/FONT][FONT=inherit !important]maker[/FONT][/FONT] expressed concern by saying, "We know this is a perception problem we have and we hope that[FONT=inherit !important][FONT=inherit !important]new [/FONT][FONT=inherit !important]car [/FONT][FONT=inherit !important]buyers[/FONT][/FONT] will find that our smooth ride and unmatched acceleration to be enough to sway them to our more “unflammable” [sic] cars. To date we have been unable to meet the 31 fires per hour bar set by ICE cars and their combustible liquid fuel. We are working with the NHTA to come up with at stop-gap solution by presenting our pathetically low fire numbers in a new numeric format to give ICE drivers the feeling that our EV can seemingly match the fire prone statistics they are used to.”

The American hope?

Industry watchers thought that GM’s new [FONT=inherit !important][FONT=inherit !important]Chevy [/FONT][FONT=inherit !important]Volt[/FONT][/FONT] would be a contender when a recent NTSHA test car burned after a rollover but it was finally revealed the Volt event was a disappointing three weeks later. Not even close to what fire extinguisher carrying [FONT=inherit !important][FONT=inherit !important]freeway[/FONT][/FONT] Americans are used to. A recent [FONT=inherit !important][FONT=inherit !important]Fisker[/FONT][/FONT] Karma fire also looked promising but ICE makers are quick to point out that both the Volt and Karma are not true EVs since the both carry gasoline and ICE generators in them and therefore don’t count.

Man on the street

EVs clearly have some catching up to do if they want to be the new flame of ICE drivers in the US of A. As one driver in LA put it, “I won’t be buying an Electric car until I start hearing about them on the radio traffic reports. What’s a morning commute without a good ol’ American car-b-que?”[/FONT]
[/FONT]​

Opinion pieces denote the opinions of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of EV World.