GM CEO Dan Akerson and the Volt
By John T. Greilick, AP
Three cheers for General Motors CEO Dan Akerson who told a House subcommittee this morning that the Chevrolet Volt is safe, that no occupant of the extended-range electric car ever was in danger, and that a Volt fire a week after a government crash test was due to a set of circumstances nearly impossible to duplicate in real life.
“We did not design the Volt to become a political punching bag and that’s what it’s become,” Akerson pointedly told the subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee.
The so-called hearing, more properly labeled an inquisition, was another attempt by conservative politicians to prove that the plug-in Volt is a flop, a Barack Obama mistake, contrary to the rave reviews the car has received from engineers and designers.
Republicans on the committee were reacting to two Volt fires, one in June, one in November, that both occurred in a federal government testing facility, not on the road – not in real life. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, after smashing Volts into walls and poles and such, had set them aside. In both cases cited by the GOP, a Volt that was leaking fluid from its battery pack caught fire about a week later.
It’s worth noting that there are 287,000 auto fires per year associated with gasoline tanks. And if the feds’ auto testers had left a smashed car lying around in some warehouse with a gasoline leak and a fire resulted, the blame would be heaped upon the NHTSA, not the manufacturer of the car.
It’s also worth pointing out that Chevy has already fixed the leakage problem and has urged all Volt owners to have their vehicle upgraded by a Chevy dealer.
In a recent online post, Forbes auto writer Joann Muller said the idea that Volt batteries are unsafe is nonsense spread by those who know nothing about the evolution of the car or the development of the Volt’s battery pack. Here’s her reaction to claims made simply to score political points:
“Hogwash. GM and its battery partner, LG Chem, have tortured that battery to death. They’ve abused it, mutilated it, jarred it, twisted it, and even punctured it with nails. There’s nothing wrong with the Volt or its battery that can’t be fixed with a couple of minor tweaks.”
Obviously irritated with Republican efforts to make this an anti-Obama issue, Akerson made clear at the House hearing that the crash-tests done were so extreme that no driver was ever in any imminent danger. The NHTSA investigated the matter and declared that there was no danger to the public.
Akerson is a Republican and a former private equity manager (like Mitt Romney), not some tree hugger. He pointed out to the House subcommittee members that GM’s decision to proceed with the manufacture of the Volt was made in 2008, before President Obama was elected. He calls the Volt “a marvelous machine.”
But the ignorance on this subject, perpetuated by ignorant talk-radio hosts, goes even deeper.
The Volt was an idea originated in 2004 by Bob Lutz, who was then GM’s chief strategist, and design work took place at the Tech Center in Warren in 2006. That was back when Obama was a little-known state senator and the Republicans controlled Washington. Lutz, a true “car guy,” is also no tree hugger. His specialty was envisioning new muscle cars, and he once famously remarked that global warming is “a crock of sh–.”
The gravely voiced Lutz has since made it known that he doesn’t think very much of politicians who try to trash an innovative American car – an engineering breakthrough – just to taint a president.
Once again, it’s time for the Volt critics to just shut up.
I suspect that if the Space Shuttle was first launched during the Obama administration, the Republicans, rather than offering broken-hearted tributes after a disastrous Shuttle explosion, as Ronald Reagan did, would have said the accident proves that Obama is an example of radical, Kenyan incompetence.
