Jalopnik reports that, 3 weeks after a Chevrolet Volt was whacked in a side-impact test by the NHTSA, it burst into flames.
I’ll chalk that up to the impact creating a an electrical short, which would allow the lithium-ion battery pack to heat up to ignition. Seems a high price to pay to get maybe 35 miles on electricity alone (which itself is a 12.5% reduction from the earlier claims).
Revisions/extensions (9:09 am 11/12/2011) - The Detroit Free Press has a few new details (H/T – Hot Air Headlines):
- This was the 20-mph side-impact test, or something you would expect at your local neighborhood roundabout.
- The battery on the Ford Pint…er, Chevy Volt was punctured. The Bloomberg story on this (H/T – Dad29) notes that metal piercing a lithium-ion battery will do exactly what happened, right down to a small puncture resulting in a fire days or weeks later.
- The NHTSA didn’t follow the Government Motors-recommended procedure of fully-discharging the battery…because GM never told the NHTSA about it.
Unlike NBC’s smear of the 1973-1997 Chevrolet/GMC full-sized pickups and their “‘explode-on-contact’ saddlebag” gas tanks, nobody needs explosives to brew up a Volt. They could either take a car to its side at a relatively-low speed or simply charge it up to 110% (yes, there have been fires involving Volts being charged).
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Roundabouts REDUCE the possibility of side impact crashes due to their design. The proof is in the pudding.
http://www.urbancommunitypartners.com/news_room/show/40-roundabouts
http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr3505.pdf
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2008/01/08/86195.htm
You’re conflating high-speed crashes and mid-speed ones. Indeed, mid-speed side-impact crashes are a primary type of crash in a roundabout.
[...] week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attempted to replicate the Volt Flambe by crash-testing 3 Volt battery packs. They were successful: The National Highway Traffic Safety [...]