‘No customer was ever in danger’, GM CEO Dan Akerson asserted yesterday as he faced a US Congress sub-committee yesterday morning following an investigation into the safety of the firm’s Chevrolet Volt model.
According to the GM chief, the safety tests the range-extended Volt was put through would have been near impossible to recreate in the real world and proved that the model was safe. He said that the model seemed to be under attack for ‘political reasons’ as much as for practical ones.
"We did not design the Volt to become a political punching bag and that’s what it’s become," bemoaned Akerson.
A safety investigation into the model, conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) closed this week as the organisation concluded the model was indeed safe. The investigation was first opened back in November after an early crash test conducted last June resulted in a battery fire three weeks later.
The committee was opened to ascertain whether the safety investigation into the model had been delayed to avoid embarrassment to the Obama administration; which part-owns GM. A new report entitled ‘Volt Vehicle Fire: What did NHTSA Know and When Did They Know It?’ from the Republican staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform prepared for the hearing, questioned whether political pressures played a part in the handling of the safety investigation.
However both Akerson and NHTSA’s chief administrator, David Strickland who both appeared before the committee asserted that the car hand been tested to the strictest standards.
European safety authority Euro NCAP has rated the petrol-electric car with a five star safety score.
GM has since incorporated a number of safety enhancements to further protect the Volt’s lithium-ion batteries in event of a crash.
