Safety defect investigation of post-crash fire risk in Chevy Volts

Testing by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has resulted in a further battery fire in the Chevy Volt.

NHTSA said that it will be opening a formal defect investigation after a second car ignited at the end of November.

The first fire (see previous story) happened after a NHTSA crash test. During that test, the vehicle's battery was damaged and the coolant line was ruptured. When a fire involving the test vehicle occurred more than three weeks after it was crashed, the agency concluded that the damage to the vehicle's lithium-ion battery during the crash test led to the fire.

NHTSA conducted three additional tests on the Volt's lithium-ion battery packs that intentionally damaged the battery compartment and ruptured the vehicle's coolant line. Following a test on November 16 that did not result in a fire, a temporary increase in temperature was recorded in a test on November 17. During the test conducted on November 18 using similar protocols, the battery pack was rotated within hours after it was impacted and began to smoke and emit sparks shortly after rotation to 180 degrees. NHTSA's forensic analysis of that incident incident is continuing. On November 24, the battery pack that was tested on November 17 caught fire at the testing facility.

Paint and Panel asked Nicholas Clarke of ANCAP to comment. Clarke said: “We have tested the Mitsubishi iMiev and Euro NCAP tested the Nissan Leaf. There was excellent battery protection in both cars and we found no issue with them. Any fuel source has the potential to be dangerous and modern design takes this into account.”