According to the Associated Press, GM CEO Dan Akerson has said General Motors will buy back any Chevrolet Volt from owners who are concerned about the vehicle’s fire risk. Akerson said that his company isn’t making the move because the plug-in hybrids are unsafe, but because GM is committed to keeping its customers happy. The CEO also said that GM is prepared to recall the 6,000 Volt models currently on the road if the federal government deems such an action necessary. As you may recall, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration discovered that the Volt could catch fire several days after a severe side-impact crash and rollover.

NHTSA found that the vehicles could ignite anywhere from seven days to three weeks after the initial impact. GM believes the fires are a result of a failure in the battery pack’s cooling system because the NHTSA test involved an intrusion of four-to-five inches into the vehicle’s battery pack. Current testing standards call for no more than two inches of intrusion.

GM initially promised free loaner vehicles to any customer concerned with the safety of their Volt, and later said that the battery pack could be redesigned to better guard against this type of failure.

GM now willing to buy back Volts from worried owners originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During Lisa Margonelli’s “Can Your Car Change The World?” talk at the Green Drive Expo in Richmond, CA on Saturday, an audience member stood up and gave the most amazing testimony. The woman said that she wanted to make a difference in the world, and so bought two Chevy Volts – one for herself and one to give away to a low-income family.

The wheels for this double-Volt purchase were set into motion March 2003, when the U.S. military invaded Iraq. The woman – who wants to remain anonymous and asked that we call her “Sam” – told AutoblogGreen that, “I was devastated, I was distraught. Nobody understands the depths to which I felt the pain of that. I don’t read the newspaper, I don’t listen to talk radio but for some reason my gut told me it was about oil. March 2003 is so critical to this story, because that’s where all my passion comes from. It was killing me.”

After the Iraq war started, Sam became fascinated by solar transportation, and her first response was to get an electric scooter, the Zapino. A few years later, she put solar panels on her house and charged the EV that way. The trouble was, the Zapino isn’t the most practical vehicle.

“I used to fall off the Zapino all the time, really funny falls,” she said. “But this year, I fell good enough that I said, ‘That’s it.’ That got me off the scooter and into the next phase, [buy a plug-in] car and give it away to a family in need and get them off expensive gasoline.”

Continue reading Jane Doe buys two Chevy Volts, hands over one to low-income family

Jane Doe buys two Chevy Volts, hands over one to low-income family originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During last week’s State of the Union address, President Obama reiterated his ambitious goal that calls for one million plug-in hybrids and electrics on the road by 2015. However, IHS Automotive analyst Recca Lindland thinks that hitting the one-million mark will require extensive fleet sales.

Lindland claims that the general public will be reluctant to purchase plug-in vehicles due to a lack of recharging infrastructure and because, “There’s going to be perpetual range anxiety.” The reluctance will translate into much lower sales than early plug-in vehicle OEMs are predicting.

Linland forecasts that Chevy will sell just over 60,000 Volts to retail customers by the end of 2015 and that sales of the Nissan Leaf will be marginally lower. Linland does anticipate that the upcoming launches of plug-in vehicles from Toyota, Ford and Fiat will contribute to the total plug-in sales volume, but automakers will still fall short of hitting the one million target. Only by emphasizing fleet sales, Lindland claims, can the U.S. hit Obama’s goal. Hat tip to Frank T!

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req.]

Analyst: Chevy will sell 60,000 Volts by 2015; Nissan Leaf will trail slightly originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 17:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to the knowers-of-all-things-Volt over at GM-Volt.com (which incidentally just got a very nice site redesign), the initial batch of first-model-year Chevrolet Volts won’t be flex-fuel capable as initially planned. Says vehicle executive Tony Posawatz, “We are finalizing some of our options and the associated timing that goes with them. The E85 capable emission package will have its timing finalized soon… It will not be available for November 2010.”

It will apparently take a full year or so to get flex-fuel capability built into the Volt’s 1.4-liter four cylinder engine/generator package. Of course, none of this matters all that much if you plan to almost exclusively operate your extended-range electric vehicle using the electric motor and lithium ion batteries, eschewing as much reliance on fossil fuels as possible… but even that strategy won’t be possible all of the time.

Interestingly, Tom Stephens, GM’s vice chairman for global product development, said at the Renewable Fuels Association Conference in Florida, “GM is spending about $100 million a year adding flex-fuel capability to our vehicles,” but it can’t continue to make that investment without further support and intervention from the U.S. government. We’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not that would be a good or bad thing.

[Source: GM-Volt.com]

Shocking Omission? First 2011 Chevrolet Volts reportedly won’t be E85 capable originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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