January 20, 2012

Well, it’s all over but the shouting now.

This afternoon, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a statement saying it had closed its investigation into the causes of a fire in the battery pack of a Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car.

The statement said the agency had concluded that “no discernible defect trend exists” and that “modifications recently developed by General Motors reduce the potential for battery intrusion resulting from side impacts.”

It also pointedly noted that no real-world crashes have resulted in any battery pack fires in Volts, perhaps a nod to hearings next week to be chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) in which the topic is to examine the government’s handling of the incident.

The title of the committee’s hearing is “Volt Vehicle Fire: What did NHTSA know, and when did they know it?”

The Volt that caught fire in June had been wrecked in a NHTSA side-impact crash test, turned 360 degrees on a rotisserie, and then stored in an open yard.

Three weeks after the crash test, the car caught fire. In subsequent lab tests designed to replicate the incident, another pack caught fire and a second emitted sparks.

GM engineer fits structural reinforcement to distribute crash energy away from Chevy Volt battery.

The agency opened an investigation into the causes in November, working closely with General Motors engineers.

Last week, GM announced that it would offer upgrades to Volt owners that would reinforce the crash structure around the pack, along with replacing the coolant filler to prevent over-filling.

Those repairs will begin in February, and the modifications are already incorporated into all Volts assembled this year at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant.

The NHTSA statement notes that it has developed procedures for de-energizing the battery pack of a wrecked electric car, working with emergency responders and other safety agencies.

GM acknowledged that it had not fully developed and distributed such procedures at the time of the June fire. It has since done so, the company says.

Just as gasoline is drained from a wrecked car after it has been towed to a garage or yard, the battery pack of a wrecked plug-in vehicle must similarly have its energy drained.

The agency’s statement also notes that, “NHTSA continues to believe that electric vehicles show great promise as a safe and fuel-efficient option for American drivers.”

+++++++++++

Arvada Auto-X 2012

MGS Tech is now accepting orders for two new tools to manage MVA’s, the Vehicle Crash Card (VCC) and Vehicle Incident Command Board (VICB).

Follow the link to read more about the Vehicle Crash Card and view a PDF.

Follow the link to read more about the Vehicle Incident Command Board and view a PDF.

This HV battery pack, located vertically behind the rear seat could be a potential issue during an extrication if a tunnel operation is required.  Removal of this pack is a necessity to gain access for removal of patients.

After two years in the works, MGS Tech has finally completed filming of a live demonstration training video of this procedure.

The goal of this training video was to reinforce that with proper training and understanding of the Hybrid power down procedures, this operation can be performed quickly and safely in the field.

Follow this link to view the video: Honda Hybrid Underride

 Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Be Safe!

MGS Tech

By Jeff Cobb

A Chevrolet Volt that was side-impact tested [1] for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and caught fire three weeks later has prompted the same agency to begin investigating lithium-ion batteries from all makers.

The second Volt now known to have been involved in a fire in early June after the 20-mph impact did not make the press five months ago, and might have gone unreported if not for the investigation just begun.

NHTSA’s full revelation was reported last week, and details included that the fire might have been prevented if it had known to implement GM’s post-crash protocols. In a statement, NHTSA did not raise undue alarm.

“Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe the Volt or other electric vehicles are at a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles,” the agency said. “In fact, all vehicles – both electric and gasoline-powered – have some risk of fire in the event of a serious crash.”

This GM-Volt said [2] last week when a third Volt was involved in a house fire in North Carolina. Thus far many more internal combustion powered vehicles have burned – 200,000 in the U.S. last year alone. To date no one has been killed by an EV fire which cannot be said of traditional vehicles.

Nonetheless, a higher degree of perceived newsworthiness has emanated from the NHTSA-crashed Volt which spontaneously caught fire while stored in a parking lot, and ignited nearby cars as well.

The news sent GM’s stock as much as 3 percent lower on Friday, and it closed 1 percent down while the market as a whole climbed two percent.

It is the newness of EVs that has people concerned, because unknown is what worse might happen. The mystery has been removed from internal combustion vehicles, but not so with EVs.

NHTSA said it is now working with all automakers on post-crash procedures to better ensure safety for electrified vehicle occupants and emergency personnel who arrive at crash scenes.

GM is cooperating and taking its own steps in kind, said Jim Federico, GM’s chief engineer for electric vehicles on Friday.

“We are working with other vehicle manufacturers, first responders, tow truck operators, and salvage associations with the goal of implementing industrywide protocols,” Federico said.

While GM is on board with NHTSA’s latest plans, GM spokesman Greg Martin said Friday that the third-party company that conducted the crash tests for NHTSA did not follow a protocol GM’s engineers had already worked out for just such an eventuality.

NHTSA is now recommending that damaged EVs be kept in an open area, not an enclosed building or garage, and they should not be left proximal to other vehicles.

It recommends also that tow-truck drivers and salvage-yard workers contact damaged electrified vehicles’ manufacturers rather than attempting to discharge batteries themselves.

Another GM spokesman, Jay Cooney, said subsequent attempts to subject the Volt to crashes and induce another fire have not been able to, so thus far, this crash fire is a one-off event.

The federal standard is actually less severe than the SUV-force side impact testing conducted by [3] the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, and that organization has had no Volt fires.

But this is now the third fire a Volt has been involved in – and the first where the Volt definitely did cause an electrically induced fire.

Following the Connecticut fire in which a Volt was on location, authorities and GM said the car was not at fault [4]. In the case of the North Carolina fire, the Volt was unofficially cleared [5] as not being the ignition source, but whether it contributed to an in-wall electrical fire is yet to be determined.

This latest post-crash fire was presumably due to a ruptured battery, but the exact cause is still under investigation.

“Apparently, there was some cell activity, latent activity that resulted in the fire,” said a NHTSA official. “That cell activity we don’t know.”

Thus far, no Nissan Leafs have been known to have been involved in a fire. Nor have other brands, so regardless of circumstances, GM has had to face these experiences alone. As the maker of the most mass market battery electric automobiles on the road, Nissan issued a statement declaring its EV to be safe.

“All of our systems have been thoroughly tested to ensure real-world performance,” Nissan said in a statement. “To date, the more than 8,000 Nissan Leafs driving on the U.S. roads have performed without reported incident.”

GM says its vehicle is safe as well. The Volt’s 400-pound battery is protected deep within the vehicle.

If further precautions – such as government-mandated discharging –or other engineering is deemed necessary for electrified vehicles, it is being said that this incident leading to the NHTSA investigation may bring that out.

By Ashley Halsey III, Published: November 16, 2011

People who invest in hybrid cars are significantly less likely to be injured in an accident because their heavy batteries make the vehicles safer than traditional cars, according to an insurance industry report released Thursday.

The average hybrid is 10 percent heavier than a traditional car of the same size, and the extra heft reduces the odds of being hurt in a crash by 25 percent, the report says.

“Saving at the pump no longer means you have to skimp on crash protection,” said Matt Moore, vice president of the Highway Loss Data Institute and author of the report.

The first generations of hybrids generally were smaller, lighter vehicles than those produced more recently. With manufacturers increasingly converting a portion of some traditionally powered car models to hybrids, the hybrid versions are heavier.

For example, a Honda Accord takes on about 480 pounds when transformed into a hybrid version. A Toyota Highlander gains 330 pounds.

Hybrid car sales peaked in 2009 at just shy of 3 percent
of the market, according to
the automotive Web site Edmunds.com. Their share dropped to 2.4 percent last year and continued to decline in the first eight months of this year.

The institute, an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, is considered one of the most reliable sources of such data because it draws on detailed insurance claim filings rather than police accident reports.

The institute gathered data on 25 models that are produced both as traditional and hybrid vehicles, all 2003-2011 models, and that had been in at least one accident that resulted in an injury claim. The Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight were excluded from the study because they are sold only as hybrids.

In a separate analysis, the institute found that hybrids are 20 percent more likely to hit a pedestrian than noisier, conventional models.

“When hybrids operate in electric-only mode, pedestrians can’t hear them approaching,” Moore said, “so they might step out into the roadway without checking first to see what’s coming.”

Congress this year gave the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration three years to come up with sound devices that will alert pedestrians to the approach of hybrids and electric car models.

When we wrote last year about the 2011 Nissan Leaf being waterboarded for your safety, little did we know an even sterner test was about to challenge the safety of Nissan’s electric car.
The devastating and tragic results of the March tsunami shook Japan to the core, and resulted in the country’s industry grinding to a halt while people picked up the pieces, metaphorically and literally.
Nissan stopped production of the Leaf momentarily, but has now gained an unusual insight into the car’s durability. The New York Times reports that Nissan recovered around two dozen of them from the wreckage and have been analyzing the results.
Despite the cars being tossed around and smashed, none caught fire and the batteries in all remained completely intact, still shielded in their airtight steel shells.
This strength raises interesting comparisons with the Chevrolet Volt, now the subject of an NHTSA test after two battery packs caught fire in safety tests.

The car in question caught fire three weeks after the test, which damaged the Volt’s battery and liquid-cooling system. Two subsequent tests also raised concerns.
Where both Nissan, and Ford with the Focus Electric, have encased their batteries in a steel cell, GM deemed the Volt’s floorpan to be strong enough protection for the battery pack.
Even so, and despite no accidents out on the road causing battery fires (and garage fires being attributed to other factors), GM offered owners the chance to drive a replacement vehicle while they investigate the cause of the fires.
Despite the testing fire, the NHTSA has still seen fit to give the Volt its full five-star safety rating, and the Nissan Leaf, which has no liquid-cooling for its battery, also has a five-star safety rating.

These tests and the unintentional damage caused to Leafs in the tsunami should still reassure buyers that electric vehicles are no less safe than their equivalent fossil-fuel cousins – and that manufacturers are putting even more effort into ensuring your safety.

It would appear that the US military is about to go green — and not by donning some stealthy camouflage — but by turning towards eco-conscious means of energy to power its vehicles. It’s no secret that the United States military relies on the use of traditional fuel sources to power many of its vehicles, but now the military is aiming to utilize green technology and develop a pair of solar-powered hybrid Humvees called the FED Alpha and FED Bravo.

Both vehicles fall under the FED (Fuel Efficient Ground Vehicle Demonstrator) category and are currently in development. While the details are particularly sparse, especially for the FED Bravo which remains classified at this time, information on the FED Alpha is available, albeit only marginally so. While the FED Bravo remains more of a mystery, the FED Alpha is said to be equipped with a solar panel mounted on the commanding Humvee to assist in powering its electrical systems.

Of course it’s clear that given recent economic crisis and the ongoing volatility in the Middle East, any attempt to curb dependency on foreign energy and provide alternate ways of powering vehicles would be a welcome and prudent strategy for not only the US military, but the country as a whole. A sentiment that Carl Johnson, FED team leader at TARDEC (Tank and Autmotive Research , Development and Engineering Command) shares, “Each vehicle will be important to the FED team’s mission — to improve mpg by about 70 percent compared to a current M1114 HMMWV and reduce the Army’s thirst for fuel on the battlefield.”

Given that both the Alpha and its classified Bravo brother are still very much in the development stage, it will most likely be some time before the military is able to implement them with full force, but if both the Alpha and Bravo can deliver and provide the same performance as their non-hybrid cousins – then it would be some very impressive green-technology being implemented in a sector of the government not known for its reverence towards the environment.

2012 Annual Fire Conference and School