general motors | Seattle Personal Injury & Accident Blog

Accident Fires May Point to Defective Chevy Volt Battery

By Hardwick & Pendergast, P.S. on December 5, 2011

In at least two crash tests, the Chevrolet Volt’s hybrid-electric battery has caught fire, causing serious damage to the vehicle and possibly posing a threat to its drivers. Now, both General Motors and the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are taking a close second look at whether or not the Volt’s battery is defective and what sort of safety risks it might pose for drivers.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, the Chevy Volt, a gas-electric hybrid, showed a serious risk of fire after at least two crash tests. In one case, the damage to the battery resulted in a fire three weeks later, long after the average driver would assume any danger had passed. In another, the battery caught fire a week later. A third accident saw the battery smoking and throwing sparks immediately after the crash – signs of an imminent fire may be caused, or a way to cause a separate engine fire or even an explosion, if the sparks came into contact with the vehicle’s fuel system. Read the rest »