In Fire Investigation, Regulators Say They Found No Defect in Volt

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/business/gm-to-reinforce-battery-in-hybrid-car.html?scp=2&sq=volt%20battery&st=cse

Just a reminder to all you good readers that the Volt's user manual clearly states, in big bold letters, that if the car is crashed, you (by way of an authorized service center) should drain the batteries. The NHTSA didn't. They crashed a Volt as part of their crash testing, and then left the car in a storage pen with fully charged batteries for a couple of weeks, and then a fire broke out. The NHTSA also tried to duplicate the crash/fire scenario, but could not. This is all publicly available info.

So the "no defect" report is accurate. Volts are not at risk of spontaneous combustion.

Also note that uninformed and sensationalistic media outlets reported this story in a way that focused on the fire, rather than on the simple and boring facts that it was easily avoided if only the NHTSA had RTFM!!! And the stupid segment of the public, who devours tabloids and infotainment TV shows, came to believe that Volts are a fire risk. Shades of Toyota unintended acceleration (and Audi's, too).

GM's reinforcement of the battery area was done to quell the stupid segment of the public. GM had to *appear* that they are "doing something", even though no problem actually existed. This also happened with Toyota as they made revisions, even though nobody, not even NASA, could find any defect that caused unintended acceleration. To do otherwise would have the stupid segment of the public not only believing there is a problem, but also believing that the manufacturer is evil because they are not doing anything to fix the problem (which doesn't exist).

Meanwhile, informed people are yawning at the hubbub, and scratching their heads, wondering how people can be so stupid.

You're a troll you expect the government to double their debt by issuing $50k tax credits because they didn't make a full return on investment. You don't protest poor hospital care for a sore tummy by cutting your legs off do you?

Badgewhore! Is that you?

At the end of the day, who gives a damn!

The Volt was failure for many reasons, Price and availability being two of the biggest. GM should learn from these failures and move on their vehicle, hopefully a full electric option and an electric car with a diesel powered generator for extended range.