General Motors Scheduled To Investigate Chevrolet Volt's Role in Fire At Barkhamsted Home

We still don't know if the Volt or magic pixie dust caused the fire last week.

This article is indicating with little equivocation that a fire did begin today inside another Volt, though. That has the makings of very bad publicity.

 

I just hope this is not a "congress" (opposite of progress) for the entire plugin segment. It appears someone rushed in and screwed things up.

 

This is interesting. I wonder if the fire damaged something within the car battery components. Granted, the article states the original fire destroyed the two vehicles. Why would the car still be there???? I would have figured they were towed away by then.

 

Yes, the preliminary finding is that the Volt WAS/IS the cause of the first fire. AND - as if that's not bad enough . . . . . . . . . ;

. . . . . . . . even after being extinguished and unplugged, the Volt seems determine to burn some more. With the Fed's owning such a HUGE hunk of GM, this does not bode well. You can be certain the homeowner's insurance will be sending a bill to GM for a new garage, a replacement EV suzuki, as well as a replacement Volt. Even so, GM is getting off cheep (as are the Fed's) because the fire could have destroyed the entire house, as well as human life. I wonder if this Volt was leased or owned ... or what the ratio of ownership to Leases is.

On a GM-humor note, I read on another forum the following:

With GM's dark past, I must admit it made me chuckle.

 

Has the fire chief released any findings ?

 

Yeah, the re-igniting made ABG this morning: Report: Burnt Chevrolet Volt mysteriously catches fire again — Autoblog Green.

 

reference ?

 

OOppps ... I just noted the email to me was only a blog spot, referencing an insurance adjuster. Since they know what side of the bread their butter is on (he claimed the Volt fire traveled from inside out ... but the source so far is not confirmed), I revoke my reference ... so back to square one w/ the original flame out for now. Speaking of reference, here's a blog spot referencing a Suzuki Samurai EV - showing some of its build/characteristics. Can there be 2 of them?

http://www.stormselectric.blogspot.com/

In any event, it certainly looks like a very "strange" setup ... saying it in a light most favorable.

.

 

If both vehicles were recharging at the same time I would suspect that the blaze started in the homes electrical wiring.. I would imagine that the wiring in the garage was not made for the type of current loads produced by 2 EV's simultaneously charging at the same time. Possibly melting the shielding causing wires to arc. I mean for me it's not to much of an impossibility for the Volt's battery to re-ignite after it has been burned up once already. I am sure the battery is damaged, and is now hazardous material that needs to be properly discharged/disposed of. Just have to say what the investigation says in the end.

 

Apart from what the home owners insurance company claims ... and apart from what the fire marshal says, GM is already saying this:

(source below)
UPDATED: Some Findings From The Connecticut Fire | Volt

Now - is GM admitting the volt was the original ignition point? It's kind of vague. It can possibly be construed GM here is only talking about the 2nd fire ... we'll see ... I hope it's just funky wiring running from the home brew EV. That, at least, will save GM's bacon.

 

Remember when Toyota said they wouldn't release L ion batteries until they were safe and reliable?

Maybe others should have taken that stance.

 

are any of those gm's still around?

 

Are you kidding?
First: Do you have any idea how many lithium battery chemestrys there are? (hint: more than you have fingers & toes)
Second: The Toyota Prius PHEV uses Lithium.
Third: Lithium battery chemestries have been around since the 1990's and each new developement (like computer memory) gets better and better.
Would you like to see the difference between old and new lithium chemestries? Check out especially around the one minute 15 second mark:

Oh . . . and btw, the "safe" battery pack that didn't flame out? Even THAT chemesty came about almost a half decade ago.

 

How many Prius PHVs are on the street SOLD by Toyota?

Here you go, paragraph 1:

http://green.autoblog.com/2007/05/3...oduction-of-lithium-ion-batteries-in-the-pri/

Article was in 2007 and there are still not L-ion batteries in a production Prius. I suppose they just like heavy NimH batteries because it's so old school?

 

If A123 cells are in Volt, I don't think the pack would rekindle.

 

For a cordless hybrid, NiMh is the best choice since power density is more important than energy density.

EVs need higher energy density. Plugins need something in between depending on how badly it is designed to stay in EV.

 

Reminds me of all those dell & sony laptop batteries that exploded and caught fire.

 

Isn't it interesting that the Samurai EV's battery pack didn't rekindle but the Volt did?