Chevrolet (and General Motors, for that matter) have a whole heck of a lot riding on the success of the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle, so much so in fact a former administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has has raised questions about a possible cover-up of sorts by NHTSA for GM’s sake.
A recent interview with former NHTSA administrator John Claybrook and Automotive News covered a potentially explosive subject – did government ties between GM and NHTSA influence the safety organization’s decision to wait six months before notifying the public of a potential safety risk? Claybrook seems to think it is as least a possibility, “Not to tell them [the public] anything for six months makes no sense to me. NHTSA could have put out a consumer alert and I think they should have done so.”
Claybrook even went on to specifically suggest a cover-up on part of NHTSA for GM, stating, “I believe they [NHTSA] delayed it [telling the public of the fire] because of the fragility of [Volt] sales.” The former administrator’s suggestion is based on the fact that it has now been uncovered that NHTSA first experienced a vehicle fire in a test-crashed Chevrolet Volt in early June, a few weeks after the vehicle was crashed on May 12. 2011. The safety agency only told the public of the fire on November 11, 2011, which has some questioning why there was such an extensive delay.
One possible explanation for NHTSA’s delay in notifying the public was that it only recreated the fire issue as of November, when additional batteries caught fire – including one that began sparking, smoking and caught fire within hours of crash testing.
GM also knew of the fire as of June, but the automaker did not notify consumers, citing the oddity of the incident, “It’s kind of odd in many respects when a car has an event three weeks after the crash,” Peterson said. “The question became: What was making this happen and what do we have to do?” explained Rob Peterson, GM spokesman speaking with AN.
Despite the explanation given by GM, it has also been confirmed that GM had developed a a procedure to power down the vehicle’s battery in the event of an accident, a move developed with the intention of avoiding fires. At that time, the Volt had already been on the market for six months.
Of course, allegations of this magnitude could create nothing less than catastrophic damage in the political realm, given the recent touting of the rescue by the Federal government of the automakers (General Motors and Chrysler) – making this a subject that will no doubt be exhaustively covered from all angles, by all parties involved.
References
1.’The Volt battery…’ view
