Chevy Volt fire prompts federal probe of lithium-ion batteries
NOV 11, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025699
Bloomberg : Last May, three weeks after undergoing a side-impact test at a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) facility in Wisconsin, a Chevrolet Volt caught fire in the facility’s parking lot. The fire was so severe that vehicles next to the Volt were burned too. General Motors, which makes the electric-powered Volt, and the NHTSA tried but failed to replicate the fire a month later. Now NHTSA is undertaking an investigation of the safety of the lithium-ion batteries that power the Volt and other electric vehicles. Lithium-ion batteries are known to undergo a strongly exothermic reaction if their protective casings are pierced by an object made of steel or other ferrous metal.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
