This Is The Chevy Volt's Post-Crash Safety Protocol

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: September 28th, 2022

TTAC has received the following protocol, developed by GM in the wake of the June Volt fire at a NHTSA facility in Wisconsin, from a GM source and has confirmed its legitimacy with a second GM source. Though the procedure may be refined based on the findings of NHTSA’s latest round of tests, it gives a good picture of what GM currently does to ensure the safety of Volt driver and passengers as well as rescue workers, towing company workers and salvage yards. And, I have to say, it puts some of my fears about this safety scare to rest. It hadn’t occurred to me that GM’s Onstar system could provide opportunities to respond to crashes in real-time, and apparently the system provides a wide variety of data with which GM’s “corporate SWAT team” can tailor its response to any Volt crash event. Hit the jump for the full procedure.

Chevy Volt sends Onstar message of just occurred crash event.
Onstar team notified of Volt crash and immediately implements standard crash protocol to assist vehicle operator
Onstar immediately pulls key crash criteria from crash notification, i.e. vehicle speed, vehicles conditions (rollover), etc
Onstar team notifies Volt Battery Team Leader of crash event including key vehicle conditions
Volt Battery team leader works with Onstar to ping Volt and check additional data if appropriate (higher severity crash events, battery data, etc)
Volt Battery team Leader determines if high crash severity standards met for depowering or if there is any question about battery severity level. If yes to either, Battery team representative is sent to crash site
Volt Battery team works with Volt advisor to contact Vehicle Owner and/or determine vehicle location
Volt Battery representative obtains approval from owner and then proceeds to investigate the crashed Volt and depowers battery if deemed necessary
Post Crash Volt stable and ready for disposition

#Batteries #Chevrolet #CustomerRelations #EV #Fire #GM #Hybrid #Lithium-ion #NewCars #OnStar #Volt #Quality #Safety

Edward Niedermeyer

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Juniper on Dec 01, 2011

And the Volt wins CRs customer satisfaction survey. Hate it all you want Buickman, the owners love it. Oh that's right the customer is always wrong, right?

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- Buickman on Dec 01, 2011
  
  people loved their Corvairs too, until they spun out and were killed. remember the old sayiong about fools and their money? at least they are happy fools.
  
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- Chuckrs on Dec 01, 2011
  
  Buyer's remorse may take a while to set in. OK with me if early adopters are happy with it; the world needs guinea pigs.
  
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- Flipper35 on Dec 01, 2011
  
  @Buickman The later Corvairs had multilink rear suspension while the Beetle (and other related cars)had a swing axle in the rear. The later Corvairs were actually a decent handling car and the early ones weren't any worse than others with a similar setup.
  
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- Nick on Dec 02, 2011
  
  @Buickman Retrospective analysis (in the early 70s) of accident stats refuted all Nader the kook's claims about the Corvair being less safe than other vehicles.
  
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Zykotec on Dec 01, 2011

European car journalists seem to praise the European version (Opel Ampera) for being a bright idea, with it's range extender, and that it drives better than most EV or hybrid cars. On the other hand, I think most European car journalist haven't grown up with American car manufacturers so they may not be able to grasp the sheer extend of GM's uselessness in the past.... Odds are 50/50 if it's a great little car or a time bomb... Now, tell me once again why they can't make the side-windows as big as they were obviously trying? or is it a nostalgic hint back to Mercury's of the 50's ?

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- Mike978 on Dec 01, 2011
  
  I understand your point about American manufacturers and their checkered 50 year past. But European journalists (and the buying public) have had American owned brands - Opel/Vauxhall and Ford - to buy from in that time.
  
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- Zykotec on Dec 01, 2011
  
  @mike978 Yes, that's true, but it's still miles away from the cars sold in the US. I can't think of any example from the top of my head when any of the reasonably good Euro GM or Fords have made a decent transition to the American market, or been sold successfully on both sides of the Atlantic. Not to mention the fact that in Europe Ford and GM has had large market shares of compact and smaller cars over the years, while at the same time having refused to even try making a compact. (or even a mid-size by European standards)
  
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