Chevy Volt Passes Safety Investigation 200
An anonymous reader writes "A few months ago, reports of battery fires from crash-tested Chevy Volts caused the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to open an investigation into the type of batteries used in the Volt and other EVs. That investigation has now concluded, and the NHTSA says the cars are safe. 'The agency and General Motors Co. know of no fires in real-world crashes. GM and federal safety officials say they believe the 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. GM announced earlier this month that it will add steel plates to about 12,000 existing Volts to protect the batteries in the event of a crash.'"
Re:Wait so we are adding more weight. (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, like magnesium!
Re:it's no big deal (Score:5, Funny)
Lions (as used in the Volt) are not destroyed if they are discharged completely.
The Volt uses lions? My god, I can see that *would* be a problem- even if undamaged, they'll generally be very pissed off and aggressive after a crash, and therefore even more likely to bite your damn head off.
Not that they're particularly safe in that respect even under normal use. No wonder GM went bankrupt if they were doing expensive and dangerous things like putting lions in their cars.
It's not good for them, it reduces their lifespan.
Having a lion in one's car is even more likely to reduce your lifespan for the reasons given above.
I propose that it would make a *lot* more sense to use batteries to power the car instead. Preferably using Titanium-Germanium technology, or Ti-Ger for short.