More Weight on the Chevy Volt to Make Less Flammable

[Nehmo]

GM makes Modifications:

'Strengthen an existing portion of the Volt’s vehicle safety structure to further protect the battery pack in a severe side collision.
Add a sensor in the reservoir of the battery coolant system to monitor coolant levels.
Add a tamper-resistant bracket to the top of the battery coolant reservoir to help prevent potential coolant overfill.

... Mary Barra, GM senior vice president of Global Product Development said. “There are no changes to the Volt battery pack or cell chemistry..." '
Angela Moscaritolo of PC magizine writes an article GM Announces Fix for Chevy Volt Fire Hazard Issue

 

[bigmoose]

Ah look at that, they made a spear with the seat cross support! How interesting!

 

[dogman dan]

At least it takes awhile to catch fire though. Remember chevy truck sidesaddle gas tanks?

 

[bigmoose]

At least it takes awhile to catch fire though. Remember chevy truck sidesaddle gas tanks?

Yep, and when I was building the house 30 years ago I had a Ford 1 ton dump truck with the gas tank INSIDE the passenger compartment right behind the seat. In fact the seat back would rub against it. Got to admit I was never comfortable with that.

 

[alan]

Yep, and when I was building the house 30 years ago I had a Ford 1 ton dump truck with the gas tank INSIDE the passenger compartment right behind the seat. In fact the seat back would rub against it. Got to admit I was never comfortable with that.

The smart thing about putting the tank next to the driver is that any intrusion bad enough to damage the tank enough to cause a fuel leak will probably be enough to kill the driver first. A tank under the tail of the vehicle can explode (and kill the driver) from a crash that might not have seriously damaged the driver's area.

The Honda Fit has the tank under the driver's seat, too. Probably the best protected space in the vehicle, and makes for tons of usable space in the cargo part of the car.

I think its a case of very smart engineering for improved safety, but just seems wrong!

-- Alan

 

[Harold in CR]

they made a spear with the seat cross support

First thing I noticed. They are deliberately trying to reap bad reports on E-vehicles.

Didn't see much headlines about that 50+ car pile up in Texas, where 2 cars caught fire ??? Must not be important enough.

 

[Nehmo]

Didn't see much headlines about that 50+ car pile up in Texas, where 2 cars caught fire ??? Must not be important enough.

The Chevy Volt fire had characteristics making it particularly fearsome. The car was in storage for three weeks after a test accident, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) performed the test. The public assumes NHTSA knows what it doing when conducting tests (however, NHTSA didn't follow the Volt's post-crash safety protocol, which requires discharging the battery). This suggests to the public the possibility of a time bomb sitting in the garage. And, let's face it, we know that Li-ion batteries can go thermal while venting flammable gas.
(They say crystallized battery coolant caused a short that caused the fire. Personally, I'd need more details before I accepted this explanation.)

In contrast, a bit less than one in a thousand internal combustion vehicles catches fire in a year (Using 2x10^5 fires on more than 2x10^8 vehicles). And, without outside cause, it would be almost impossible for an ICE car to ignite after sitting idle for weeks.

By the way, in the recent 79-car pileup in Texas, some reports say "two" and others say "one" fire.

The car that caught fire in the Texas 5Jan2012 pileup on Texas 73