DETROIT — General Motors Co. is offering to loan
Chevrolet Volt owners another GM vehicle for free after the federal
government last week began investigating the electric vehicle’s safety
risk in the wake of two post-crash-test fires.
“Chevrolet
and GM believe in the safety of the Volt,” GM North America President
Mark Reuss told reporters Monday morning on a conference call. “But our
focus is and always will be on the confidence and safety of our
customers.”
Volt owners have not requested
loaners, Reuss said. But the automaker wants to continue its personal
attention to its initial Volt drivers, who have emerged as spokespeople
for the company’s push to change its image with the extended-range
electric vehicle.
Knowing about the Volt increases
a customer’s likelihood of considering any Chevrolet vehicle by 60
percent, GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick said. But GM has had to combat
news this month about Volt batteries catching fire after government
tests that simulate side-impact and rollover crashes.
The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s tests have caused two
Volt batteries to catch fire days after the crash and a third to start
smoking and emitting sparks. First, NHTSA said early this month that a
Volt had caught fire three weeks after a crash test, a problem GM said
could be avoided if NHTSA were to drain the battery after the test. The
safety agency then tested three other Volt batteries this month. One of
those batteries started smoking and sparking, and a second battery
caught fire a week after the test.
GM spokesman
Selim Bingol said GM welcomes NHTSA’s investigation, is working with the
government and expected the Volt would be under extra scrutiny because
of its unique technology. Unlike other plug-in hybrids or electric
vehicles, the Volt runs on battery power for 35 miles before switching
to the gasoline generator that provides indefinite range.
GM
has said it learned of the Volt battery’s fire risk after the first
NHTSA fire, which occurred this spring. The automaker learns of severe
crashes via OnStar and then sends a team of engineers to drain the
Volt’s battery within a couple of days.
“When
electrical energy is left in a battery, it’s similar to leaving gasoline
in a gas tank that has been damaged,” GM product development chief Mary
Barra said. Still, she said, “this potential for an electrical fire
from this condition should not exist until days after a severe crash.”
Both
the Volt batteries that caught on fire did not do so until at least a
week after the crash test. The battery that started sparking stabilized
by itself almost immediately, Barra said.
GM will
not commence Volt sales overseas until it has prepared those markets to
depower the battery, Reuss said, adding that the overseas rollouts were
still on track. GM has built its first extended-range electric vehicles
this year for sale in Europe and China.
GM has
also identified some “promising” changes to the Volt’s battery design
that could help prevent post-crash fires, Barra said.
In
the meantime, the loaner offer for current Volt owners is indefinite,
Reuss said. GM planned to send letters to more than 5,000 Volt owners at
noon Monday.
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