fire

  • 2012 Fisker Karma during road test, Los Angeles, Feb 2012

    Last week, we told you about a house fire in Texas on May 3 involving a 2012 Fisker Karma luxury Sedan, which fire investigators believed to be the cause of the blaze. Shortly after the story broke, Fisker Automotive released an official statement stating that it had “not ruled out possible fraud or malicious intent,” adding that the company would “not be commenting further” until all the facts in the case had been established. Now, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has sent a field investigation crew to Texas to...

  • 2012 Fisker Karma during road test, Los Angeles, Feb 2012
    Fisker Karma Fire: Owner, Company, Analyst Trade Accusations

    Oh dear. This could get ugly. The owner of a new 2012 Fisker Karma that burned to the ground in Sugar Land, Texas, is trading accusations with Fisker. The fire destroyed two other cars and damaged the garage it was stored in and other parts of the house. The owner reported a smell of burning rubber...

  • car on fire
    Was A Fisker Karma The Cause Of A Recent House Fire?

    If authorities in Fort Bend County, Texas are correct, there’s more bad news in store for extended-range electric automaker Fisker. Last week, a 2012 Fisker Karma owner in Fort Bend County parked his Karma in an attached garage, alongside a Mercedes SUV and an Acura NSX. Three minutes later...

  • GM Battery Lab, Warren Technical Center
    Explosion Damage To GM Battery Lab Could Reach $5 Million

    A week ago we brought you the news that a chemical gas explosion had injured employees at GM's Alternative Energy Center in Warren. Five people were evacuated from the lab, and one employee remains in hospital following treatment for injuries resulting from the blast. Now, Detroit News reports that...

  • GM Battery Lab, Warren Technical Center
    GM Battery Lab Explosion Attributed To Gases From A123 Cells

    UPDATE, Thu, April 12, 11:15 am: The Detroit News quotes an unnamed source this morning as saying that the battery pack being tested that caused yesterday's explosion at GM's Warren Technical Center contained lithium-ion cells from battery maker A123 Systems. The Chevrolet Spark EV is the only GM...

  • Structural enhancements to fit to Chevy Volt electric car to avoid post-crash battery-pack fires.
    NHTSA: Chevy Volt Battery Pack Fix OK, Ends Investigation

    Officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have said they are happy with the proposed safety enhancements for the 2011 and 2012 Chevrolet Volt designed to minimize the risk of battery pack fire following a major impact. In an interview yesterday at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show...

  • 2012 Fisker Karma EcoSport

    What holiday gift do you give Fisker Automotive, the company responsible for the world’s first plug-in hybrid sports coupe? A Matchbox 2012 Fisker Karma perhaps? But a public suggestion that the battery packs inside the $106,000+ Fisker Karma luxury plug-in hybrid are at risk of a coolant leak which could lead to a short circuit or even a fire? That’s more suited to a halloween prank than a place on Santa’s sleigh. On Friday, just two days before Christmas, lithium-ion battery pack supplier A123 Systems warned that it had found a “potential safety issue” in...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt joins NYPD Fleet
    NYPD Isn’t Going To Ask The Chevrolet Volt For Its Badge

    In Hollywood films and TV shows, good cops often have to hand in their badge and gun when they’re accused of something terrible. Luckily, in the real world, that doesn’t happen so much. Not to cops, and not to cop cars. Enter the New York Police Department, which has just confirmed that...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt Production Line
    GM Said To Be Close To Design For Volt Battery Pack Modification

    Engineers at General Motors are close to finalizing a set of design modifications to the Chevrolet Volt battery pack to prevent later fires in packs that have been severely damaged in accidents. The updates come in response to two fires in lithium-ion Volt battery packs that were compromised during...

  • 2012 Chevrolet Volt
    Today's Volt Update: GM Buyback, Owners Rally, Sales Goal Unmet

    Phew. Yesterday was quite a day indeed in Chevy Volt land. A bevy of news items hit the wires, following Monday's offer of loaner cars to Volt owners who weren't comfortable with their cars' safety until the NHTSA finishes its investigation into battery-pack fires in cars that had been wrecked in...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt during IIHS crash testing
    GM Offers Loan Cars To Chevy Volt Customers While Crash Fires Are Investigated

    A few weeks ago we told you about a 2011 Chevrolet Volt which had caught fire in a storage yard three weeks after it was subjected to an official National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash test. But after a second Chevrolet Volt caught fire at the NHTSA test labs last week following a...

  • Car accident
    NHTSA To Treat Crashed Electric Cars With More Respect After Volt Blaze

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is considering adopting a new set of procedures for tow trucks and wrecking yards to follow when dealing with severely crashed electric cars. The new guidelines may be implemented after an incident in which a 2011 Chevrolet Volt caught fire...

  • car on fire

    The fire marshal investigating a Mooresville, NC, fire that engulfed a 2011 Chevrolet Volt electric car has concluded preliminarily that the car was not the source of the fire.

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt destroyed in Barkhamsted, CT, garage fire; image from WTNH News 8 report
    Third Fire Consumes A Chevy Volt Electric Car: Perspective

    Neither GM nor the NHTSA has been able to replicate a fire that occurred in a wrecked Chevrolet Volt three weeks after it was demolished in an NHTSA crash test.

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt charging port
    Should Chevy Volt Owners Worry About Charging Fires? Utility Says Yes, Common Sense Says No 

    A fire in Mooresille, North Carolina last week involving a 2011 Chevrolet Volt has led Duke Energy to advise its customers against charging the plug-in hybrid at home in case it starts a fire. But is the advice justified, or just another example of what happens when irrational fear of a new...

  • Scenes from dedication of electric-car charging station at Creekside Inn, Palo Alto, CA
    French Charging Laws Could Leave Electric Car Adoption in Flames

    Earlier this week we told you about the Danish town refusing to allow charging station and battery provider Better Place from installing charging points unless it painted them green. Now the electric car craziness has headed south to France, where officials at the French Ministry for the...

  • Ultra-Capacitor Bus in Shanghai after fire; photo from Eastday
    Chinese Electric Bus Catches Fire On Road, Not The First One

    Chinese media are reporting that an electric bus caught fire in Shanghai at noon on Monday. And this is apparently not the first such incident. A Reuters report indicates that at least one earlier incident has been reported in the Chinese press within the last three months. A local Shanghai blog...

  • 110V outlet
    Got a 2011 Chevy Volt? Check Your 110V Charge Cable

    If you’re thinking of buying a 2011 Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, then you’re probably already aware that its 16 kilowatt-hour battery pack is much smaller than the battery packs normally found in pure electric cars. As a consequence, it is even possible to charge the Volt’s...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt destroyed in Barkhamsted, CT, garage fire; image from WTNH News 8 report

    A garage caught fire, destroying the two cars inside. That's what we know. One of the cars inside was a brand-new 2011 Chevrolet Volt, and the other was a home-converted electric car. But because of that, what we've gotten from various media is inaccurate at best, and potentially quite misleading to the general public. So we think a bit of perspective is needed. One conversion, one Volt The facts: Around 4 am Thursday morning, a two-car garage caught fire at the Center Hill Road home of Storm Connors, in Barkhamsted, Connecticut. Thanks to a firewall between the garage and the house and quick...

  • 2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5
    Tesla Plays Cautiously, Recalls 439 Roadsters Over Potential Fire Risk

    Tesla Motors, manufacturers of the all-electric Tesla Roadster and Tesla Roadster Sport has decided to recall 439 of its sexy sports car, over a potential fire risk. The Palo-Alto based automaker has often been in the news this year, from its roller coaster initial public offering back in June...

  • 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
    Ford Names Director of Global Electrification

    If there was ever any doubt that Ford wants to be known for hybrids and electric vehicles, that was put to rest today, after the Dearborn, Michigan, based automaker named a "Director of Electrification." The newly created position will be filled by Nancy Gioia, who has served almost four years as...

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