When Did They Know It and Was It Suppressed -- Volts' Exploding Batteries

AutoGuide.com link here.

Apparently, way back in June, General Motors heard about a Volt fire that happened three weeks after said vehicle was crash tested, yet it wasn’t until November that the company, or NHTSA disclosed there was a potential problem, urging both dealers and customers to drain the battery pack immediately following an accident.

As a result the public relations nightmare surrounding Chevy’s halo vehicle appears to be deepening, though a good deal of the blame in this case also rests with NHTSA.

Joan Claybrook, a former adminstrator at NHTSA believes part of the reason for the delay was the “fragility of Volt sales.” Yet she also believes that “NHTSA could have put out a consumer alert, not to tell them [customers] for six months makes no sense to me.”

I guess when the government manufactures a defective product, the government is not required to report defects.

If I read the article correctly, Government Motors did not report the problem, and then an agency of the government, NHTSA, did not report the problem due to the "fragility of Volt sales."

Wow.