GM recalls Volt for fix to lower risk of battery fires
Source: Agencies |
January 7, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
GENERAL Motors is advising Volt owners to return their electric cars to dealers for repairs that will lower the risk of battery fires.
The company hopes that, by adding steel to the plates protecting the batteries, it will ease worries about the car's safety. Three Volt batteries caught fire after government crash tests last year, prompting a federal probe and sending GM engineers scrambling to find a fix.
Eligible for the free repairs, announced on Thursday, are 8,000 Volts on US roads and another 4,400 still for sale. The cars are covered by a "customer satisfaction program" run by GM, which is similar to a safety recall but allows the carmaker to avoid the bad publicity and federal monitoring that come with a recall.
GM and federal safety officials believe last year's fires were caused by coolant leaking from damaged plastic casing around the batteries after side-impact collisions. The coolant caused an electrical short, which sparked battery fires seven days to three weeks after the crashes. No owners have reported fires after crashes.
GM has a huge incentive to fix the problem and protect the Volt's image. Although the car isn't a big seller - it's fallen short of sales goals - it burnishes GM's image as a greener, more innovative carmaker.
The safety stumble could make it even harder for the Volt to compete with rival electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf. To contain the bad publicity after the fires, GM last year offered to buy back Volts from worried owners.
Adding the steel will spread the force of a crash over a larger area, says Mary Barra, GM's product development chief. Tests by GM and the government have shown that the repairs, to start in February, will prevent battery damage and coolant leaks.
"We have made the Volt even safer," says Mark Reuss, GM's North American president.
GM has done crash tests on four reinforced Volts and found that the fix worked. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also has crash-tested a Volt with the added steel.
"The preliminary results of the crash test indicate the remedy proposed by General Motors today should address the issue," the federal agency says.
The agency will monitor the crashed car for another week as it continues its investigation.
Critics have accused the agency of going easy on GM because the government still owns 26.5 percent of the company's shares.
The company hopes that, by adding steel to the plates protecting the batteries, it will ease worries about the car's safety. Three Volt batteries caught fire after government crash tests last year, prompting a federal probe and sending GM engineers scrambling to find a fix.
Eligible for the free repairs, announced on Thursday, are 8,000 Volts on US roads and another 4,400 still for sale. The cars are covered by a "customer satisfaction program" run by GM, which is similar to a safety recall but allows the carmaker to avoid the bad publicity and federal monitoring that come with a recall.
GM and federal safety officials believe last year's fires were caused by coolant leaking from damaged plastic casing around the batteries after side-impact collisions. The coolant caused an electrical short, which sparked battery fires seven days to three weeks after the crashes. No owners have reported fires after crashes.
GM has a huge incentive to fix the problem and protect the Volt's image. Although the car isn't a big seller - it's fallen short of sales goals - it burnishes GM's image as a greener, more innovative carmaker.
The safety stumble could make it even harder for the Volt to compete with rival electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf. To contain the bad publicity after the fires, GM last year offered to buy back Volts from worried owners.
Adding the steel will spread the force of a crash over a larger area, says Mary Barra, GM's product development chief. Tests by GM and the government have shown that the repairs, to start in February, will prevent battery damage and coolant leaks.
"We have made the Volt even safer," says Mark Reuss, GM's North American president.
GM has done crash tests on four reinforced Volts and found that the fix worked. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also has crash-tested a Volt with the added steel.
"The preliminary results of the crash test indicate the remedy proposed by General Motors today should address the issue," the federal agency says.
The agency will monitor the crashed car for another week as it continues its investigation.
Critics have accused the agency of going easy on GM because the government still owns 26.5 percent of the company's shares.
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