Freepmail "Lazlo in PA" to be added or removed.
Posted on 04/11/2012 8:51:24 AM PDT by equaviator
According to WWJ Detroit, there was an explosion at the General Motors Tech Center in Warren, Mich., on Wednesday morning.
Deputy Fire Chief Gary Wilkinson said the explosion most likely was related to a lithium battery.
Wilkinson told Autoweek that a responder notified the HAZMAT team via radio that the explosion involved lithium batteries in the research facility's Alternative Energy Center.
The fire was extinguished and portions of the facility were evacuated, but responders were still on the scene.
Two people were taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries.
Check out WWJ CBS Detroit for up-to-the-minute information.
Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120411/CARNEWS/120419982#ixzz1rkOFfaeg
Nah, it’s not the battery. It’s never the battery. Must be a cheap 15 AMP outlet or a worn out power cable.
Freepmail "Lazlo in PA" to be added or removed.
Let me guess. The Volt factory?
Is there a Volt in your future?
GM couldn’t be doing more to turn consumers off to this tech in vehicles if they tried. I am wondering how long it will be till insurance companies charge extra for insuring both these cars and the dwellings they are parked in. Volts sure look like a bigger liability than an ‘88 Celebrity.
” Is there a Volt in your future? “
There will be a REvolt in our future, first...
“Let me guess. The Volt factory?”
The GM Tech Center in the research facility’s Alternative Energy Center (Warren, MI)
"maybe I can start a new volt clunker campaign, or force new volt owners to buy fire insurance.......did Putin call back yet?"
Why are they still messing around with batteries? It is insanity to continue with electric powered vehicles.
It’s funny - I’ve owned a lot of those old “internal combustion engine” cars over the course of my life - and not a single one of them has ever exploded. Wonder why that is?
...and in keeping with the general theme, I heard a blub on the radio, an ad claiming all kinds of good things regarding subsidized wind energy. Bottom line was we should all call our senators and congressmen and let them no that this is good and to support it.
I’m not all in for a technology that only works when the wind blows, and only works because government is propping it up, and I’m certainly NOT all in for a technology that went out just as fast as rural electrification came in, in the 1930’s, and most assuredly I’m not for government spending one red cent on a technology that on it’s best day is only 30% efficient.
Furthermore, when forty cents of every dollar the government spends, is borrowed regardless from whom, I am agin it, and would hope right thinking people in all corners of the US would be as well.
Reminds me of the volt, or electric cars in general. How does this sound? Toot the horn for electric vehicles, while making major efforts to shut down the cheapest form of electric power generation, the coal fired power plant. Surly sanity, common sense, or both have departed the building.
Another Volt Jolt....
The Warren Tech Center is GM's ginormous development facility.
I am all for mocking the Volt and Government Motors, but Lab accidents happen. Engineers can get a bit sloppy while they are focusing on some difficult problems, and speed to get an answer, and not paying attention to the 'mundane' issues of safety and control...
Not enough batteries.
” I’ve owned a lot of those old “internal combustion engine” cars over the course of my life - and not a single one of them has ever exploded. Wonder why that is? “
I was a parts man (retail auto parts - mom&pop stores — ya gotta be really old to remember them...) in the early 70s, and I saw my share of exploded batteries - usually from some fool figuring out that he could jumper around the voltage regulator... (which was possible with the old-style relay-type regulators.. )
And one memorable occasion when a real idiot bought 4 cans of “Kwik-Start” and, in the parking lot, sprayed all 4 into his carbeuretor - then ‘turned it over’... (I’ll leave the result to your imagination - but it was pretty spectacular.... ;))
Give the Volts to the Taliban to drive.
Would Government Motors lie about the Chevy Volt? /sarc
Seriously, whether this is related to the Volt or not I'd bet there's a bunch of GM and Chevy execs beating their heads against a wall over this incident. If GM had been completely honest about the Volt over the last couple years it might be no big thing but they haven't.
“I’d bet there’s a bunch of GM and Chevy execs beating their heads against a wall over this incident.”
GM Public Affairs Office secretary:
“Sir, President Obama is waiting to speak to you on line 1...Yessir, I’ll tell him.”
Heh. Perhaps the Volt's powerplant should be classified as an "external combustion engine." (No disrespect to the Sterling motor!)
Actually, I had one that did - a '64 Corvette. You maybe could blame the government, though. 1964 was the first year of smog rules, and Chevrolet eliminated crankcase emissions by porting the crankcase vent up, into the air cleaner rather than down to the road. This caused the air cleaner to soak up oil from the crankcase.
I experienced a backfire, which then lit the oil soaked air cleaner. The resulting fire then lit the fiberglass hood resins. It was not fun.
venting into the intake tract also causes the flash point of the fuel mixture to drop, thus predisposing to pinging and detonation.
By definition, they are. If they aren't, then they aren't right thinking!
Indeed. subsequent years added a Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) valve, and also ported the fumes directly into the carburetor to reduce adverse effects.
Unfortunately, cars get smog checked biennially. In between times, a little tampering goes a long way in boosting the ponies. With cycles, adjustments “for off road racing purposes only” are the norm.
ROFLOL!!
The truth hurts doesn’t it?
SMM is a Volt lover, equaviator.
My bad for assuming.
Your adolescence is showing, boy.
Yeah, so is Jennifer Granholm...Jenny take a ride!
ObamaMotors still owes us about $36-$58 billion. Stock chart...
Sources for what is owed...
http://bungalowbillscw.blogspot.com/2010/11/obama-declares-gm-american-success.html
“...for every $1 of profit, the U.S. government paid $4. Taxpayers also spent another $27-billion to buy General Motors stock and currently own about 30% of the company in stock. 47,500 blue-collar workers will be receiving profit sharing checks of up to $7,000.”
I hope they’re not breaking their arms patting themselves on the back. Probably are...GM seems like it’d be a weird place to work. “We’re special!”
Hybrids use Lithium batteries too. But the ones for all electric vehicles are by necessity of higher capacity and higher energy density. Thus, more likely to turn into a bomb.
“Why are they still messing around with batteries? It is insanity to continue with electric powered vehicles.”
IINM, people have been trying batteries for 100+yrs, and it still isn’t working. What’s the definition of “insanity”, again? It sure fits these greenie-techy morons.
Compressed or liquified NG is a proven technology for internal combustion engines. The modifications are minimal and may even allow for easy switchover at need.
Of course NG can be, and is, used in electricity generation too.
But that is not the point. The Socialists hate the automobile, it gives the lumpen proliteriate too much independence and freedom. So they'll soon discover that burning natural gas creates CO2, which it does, and we can forget about it.
Meanwhile the electric grid is strained to the breaking point. Even Texas almost went to rolling blackouts last summer, although they THINK they'll be OK this year. So what does Crazy Eddie do? Push electric cars. (For Crazy Eddie reference see the Mote In God's Eye, by Pournelle and Niven)
"When a city has grown so overlarge and crowded that it is in immediate danger of collapse ... when food and clean water flow into the city at a rate just sufficient to feed every mouth, and every hand must work constantly to keep it that way ... when all transportation is involved in moving vital supplies, and none is left over to move people out of the city should the need arise ... then it is that Crazy Eddie leads the movers of garbage out on strike for better working conditions."
"It was not part of his nature to wish for what could not be, but he hoped that the efforts to breed a more stable Mediator would succeed; it was difficult to work with creatures who might suddenly see an unreal universe and make judgements based on it. The pattern was always the same. First they wished for the impossible. Then they worked toward it, still knowing it to be impossible. Finally they acted as if the impossible could be achieved, and let that unreality influence every act."
Barack Hussein Obama is Crazy Eddie.
One of the legends at the parts store I worked at was about some genius who walked in and asked for a can of “Freezone.” So the young counter guy sells him a can of R-12. Genius walks out, removes the radiator cap and proceeds to punch a hole in the top of the can with a screwdriver. One nanosecond later it was frozen to his hand. He came back in a little upset...
I sleep with my lithium batteries. Ya think I oughta reconsider?
“If GM had been completely honest about the Volt over the last couple years it might be no big thing but they haven’t.”
If they had been completely honest about the 350 diesel, we might have a large portion of the fleet running diesel today.
I have a R/C plane with a lithium battery that I augered into the ground rather spectacularly. It hit hard enough to cause an internal short in the 1/3 cigarette pack sized battery. The resulting fire was impressive. Flames blowing out the side and acrid smoke.
I have not been to an electric car fire yet but I am somewhat apprehensive at the thought.
Oh, yeah - “Fun With Freon”
*Carefully* pry the top off of one of the little cans of freon, *gently* pour the contents into a styrofoam coffee cup - carry it towards your friend, and when you’re a few feet away, ‘trip’ and spill the contents of your cup in his direction...
(He will panic when he sees the liquid coming at him, and you all get a good laugh at the expression on his face as it evaporates before reaching him.. Hilarious, until he gets up and beats the crap outta ya... ;))
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