The Chevy Volt's lithium-ion battery may be great for a lot of things -- like low gasoline-dependency, for instance -- but when it comes to bureaucracy regulated crash tests, it's proving to be a fiery problem. As the story goes, back in May, the national Highway Traffic Safety supervision put a Volt through yardstick side-impact crash testing, and in doing so, "the vehicle's battery was damaged and the coolant line was ruptured." The big issue? The car went up in flames voluminous weeks later, superficially as direct result. That event prompted the NHTSA to further study the safety of the batts in the period after a crash, which culminated in more tests performed just over a week ago to find out if they would prove volatile again -- simply put, they did. The group of late explained that it's "concerned that damage to the Volt's batteries as part of three tests that are explicitly designed to replicate real-world crash scenarios have resulted in fire."



Because of this development, the NHTSA (with assistance from the beat of Defense, beat of Energy and General Motors itself) has officially launched a formal observation into the Volt to ensure that its current battery employment isn't a safety defect. Despite the announcement, the agency notes that of all the Volts currently zipping along the streets, there has yet to be a to be a similar circumstance out on the open road. The NHTSA further clarified that there's not yet any reason for current owners to worry, so long as they haven't been in an disaster with their vehicle. Overall, GM describes the whole tour as "procedural" at this point, stating that both GM has been working with the NHTSA for over six months on a "broader program designed to induce battery failure after extreme situations." Seems a bit late at this point, but in any event, you'll find full details in the press releases from both parties just past the break.