According to foreign news, last week, the U.S. auto safety agency officials initiated a General Motors Chevrolet Volt electric car survey, after the car has two batteries to take the hit Mars or after the test fire. U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NationalHighwayTrafficSafetyAdministration, referred to as NHTSA) testing was triggered this spring in a Volt battery is damaged in the crash test, three weeks later, the battery caught fire, igniting the car and the garage with the NHTSA The other three cars.

    At the same time, NHTSA's position had changed, no longer sure that battery-powered vehicles and conventional gasoline cars as safe. However, NHTSA said, in addition to Volt, there is no specific reason to be worried about other electric vehicles.

    NHTSA and General Motors said, Volt owners do not have to worry about, because the fire is in a few days after the crash occurred, not when the crash occurred. In addition, they also pointed out that gasoline in the damaged car after a fire. According to the U.S. National Fire Protection Association (NationalFireProtectionAssociation) data in the United States, more than 25 million cars each year on fire, killing about 500 people were killed.

    However, if the NHTSA survey found that more risk, a new electric vehicle battery safety concerns may fight against the Obama administration's efforts to promote electric vehicles. In addition, General Motors may also be bad news. GM Volt is an old legacy of one of the last few models, GM has been the key to reshaping the image.

    NHTSA officials will require all electric vehicle manufacturers to provide engineering details and incidents to ensure the safety of the proposed measures. A major objective is to ensure that responding to the accident the first person to correctly dispose of vehicle.

    Main problem for Volt and Nissan Motor (NissanMotorCo.) of the Leaf and other electric vehicles used in high-power lithium battery. Next year, Toyota Motor (ToyotaMotorCorp.) and Ford (FordMotorCo.) plans to start selling electric vehicles using lithium batteries.

    Lithium has been the focus of consumer electronics recall. Fearing the battery may overheat and catch fire, including Apple (AppleInc.) and Dell (DellInc.), including PC manufacturers have been forced to recall millions of laptop batteries. Earlier this year, NHTSA's chief counsel Vincent (KevinVincent) said that the automotive industry can not be sure whether the car crash safety.

    Automotive research firm Edmunds.com chief executive Chang Virgin (JeremyAnwyl) said that the basic tendency of lithium batteries is their inherent instability.

    In NHTSA's latest test, the agency deliberately destroyed the battery seals, cut off the car's cooling system to simulate in May when the first test case. The agency said that although the first crash test, the battery is in a few weeks after the fire, but in the second test took place within a week the fire phenomenon.

    According to two sources familiar with the test situation, Nissan Leaf in a similar test, the car's battery is not damaged in the crash. These people say, Leaf battery is steel package, which may help prevent cell damage occurs. In addition, most of the electric car is different, Leaf does not require coolant.

    Nissan's automotive safety engineering, said a senior manager BobYakushi, in people's minds laptop batteries prone to overheating, but the car's battery with this are very different; ideas need to be clarified.