In the wake of the recent publicity over Chevrolet Volts that caught fire after being left to sit following NHTSA crash tests, Chevrolet is offering to buy back Volts from owners who are afraid the plug-in hybrid cars will catch fire, the company's CEO said Thursday. In addition, GM CEO Dan Akerson said the company is considering redesigning the car's battery pack.
The fires occurred from seven days to three weeks after NHTSA crash tests. While GM has said there's no threat of fires immediately after crashes, and also that no Volts that were involved in real-world crashes have caught fire, it still wants to be sure that customers feel safe and secure.
Akerson said, "The fire broke out seven days later. Not seven minutes. Not seven seconds. "I think in the interest of General Motors, the industry, the electrification of the car, it's best to get it right now than when you have – instead of 6,000 – 60,000 or 600,000 cars on the road."
Yes, that's right, at the time of this writing GM has sold only about 6,000 Volts.
GM's crash protocol for its Volts includes draining the batteries in the case of a crash. GM earlier said that the NHTSA not only didn't follow the protocol, it didn't know the protocol.
After the first incident, the NHTSA conducted three more tests on the Volt. The temperature of the battery pack rose temporarily after the first crash test, and a fire ignited after the second test.
In addition to the buy-back program, GM is considering reformulating its batteries. Akerson said, in a separate interview, “We want to assure the safety of our customers, of our buyers, and so we’re just going to take a time out, if you will, in terms of redesigning the battery possibly.
“It is a safe car. We just want make sure that there are protocols post-crash.” GM also stresses there are no flaws in the battery cells, and that they are safe during and immediately after a crash. It’s important to note that not one Volt has been involved in an accident that resulted in a fire on public roads."
The Volt uses Li-ion batteries rather than the more common NiMH batteries such as used in Toyota's hybrid (not plug-in, yet) Prius. While providing more energy in the same package, they are also more prone to volatility, as can be seen in the not uncommon fires and overheating among laptop and cell phone Li-ion batteries.
This doesn't mean Li-ion batteries are not safe, overall.
Earlier this week, GM also instituted a loaner program for Volt owners to use until the cause of the fires is determined and fixed, if required. So far, Akerson said, 16 Volt owners have inquired about the program, but only two have taken GM up on the offer.
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Sales of the Volt have been picking up lately with GM’s extended-range EV outselling one of its main rivals, the Nissan Leaf, for the very first time in October. Famous car nut Jay Leno, though, is an early adopter and he got his own Volt in December of 2010.
The host of “The Tonight Show” says he has covered more than 10,000 miles without ever visiting a gas station. Yes, you read that correctly: Leno is still driving on the same tank of fuel his Volt had 11 months ago.
“I like electricity when I need it and gas when I need to use it”, said Leno. “I travel 28 miles to the studio every day, then I go shopping, run errands, pull in the driveway; that’s 40 miles or so. Then I plug it in, but if I need to travel further the car is ready for that too.”
Leno isn’t the only Volt owner who has passed the 10,000-mile mark without visiting the gas station. “I’m an opportunistic charger”, says Edward Ellyatt whose daily commute is 41 miles. “I generally find a 120V plug in the parking lot and ask management if I can use it when shopping or dining. If I am at one location for an hour or two, I can expect to get enough EV range to get me home where I can plug back in.”
Leno, Ellyatt and other Volt owners that have a five-digit number on their car's odometer will receive a “10,000 Electric Mile” badge.
Vice president of Global Chevrolet Marketing, Chris Perry, said: “The 10,000 Electric Mile badge not only recognizes their achievement, but gives another point to brag about with anyone interested in learning more about the Volt.”
A survey carried out by Chevrolet found out that the average Volt owner fills up the tank once a month and travels 900 miles between gas station visits.
Perry added, “Volt owners are an extremely passionate and enthusiastic group. They carry pictures of their car, refer to themselves by their VIN number and freely talk about their ownership experience with anyone who will ask.”
HP earlier said that it would be building and releasing a new run of TouchPads, its soon-to-be late, but perhaps not too lamented webOS tablets, but did not say exactly when, although it said it would be sometime in HP's fiscal Q4 2011, which ends October 31. With an announcement that the TouchPad will be returning to its EPP, can that new set of TouchPads be far away?
According to employees who have been sent an email by Stephen Dewitt, Stephen DeWitt, SVP & GM of HP webOS global business unit PSG (Personal Systems Group), the company will release a final batch of HP TouchPads to employees starting September 28th at 9:00 a.m. PDT. The pricing for the tablets will be the same as the fire sale prices ($99 for 16GB, $149 for 32GB) that spurred the demand that HP wanted at its original prices.
TouchPads will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, with only one TouchPad per employee (not one of each storage tier). Orders may take as long as 10 days to ship due to warehouse load. Orders will only be taken via the online EPP store, no phone orders.
One might expect that a number of these will end up on eBay. A number of TouchPads are selling on the online auction site for $200 instead of the $99 fire sale price for the 16GB model, meaning a 100 percent profit for a seller who managed to get one at the low, low price.
Although HP's earlier statement indicates that regular consumers should be able to get their an opportunity at the next run of TouchPads, it's unclear if that set of devices is already spoken for by those who managed to get unfulfilled orders in at the fire sale prices.
That said, we would recommend that folks start looking closely at sites such as HP's online store, Best Buy and Amazon.com in the days just prior to and just following Sept. 28.
Actress Genelia D’Souza, who is in Malaysia on a month-long schedule for the Telugu movie Na Istam, wants to get back as soon as possible because she is missing home.
As hard as it may be to believe, there are other tablets besides the iPad (and perhaps, the Motorola Xoom), and one of them is the BlackBerry PlayBook.
Multiple sources have told BGR that RIM first tablet, the PlayBook, will launch to retail on April 10th. They've also told the site that while the OS goes GM (gold master) on March 31 folks will get an OS update notification immediately upon booting up the device.
The BlackBerry PlayBook will run RIM's new OS, QNX, and possibly run Android apps, as well. It will come with a 7-inch, 1024 x 600, capacitive multitouch display, a Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 3-megapixel front-facing camera along with a 5-megapixel rear- facing camera.
The first version will be wi-fi only, although users can pair with their BlackBerry smartphone to have cellular connectivity. Of course, they could also use a Droid X or iPhone 4 as a hotspot, instead. RIM will ship 3G and 4G versions later.
Three hundred 65 days ago, General Motors showed a preview of next-generation subcompact line at the 2010 North American International Auto Show. The European-spec model, which continues to bear the Aveo name badge, was launched at the Paris Motor Show in September 2010.
GM claims certain features, including 59.4-inch track width front and rear, a stiffened front cradle and optional 17-inch wheels and sporttires lend a sporty feeling Sonic on the road. GM had to upgrade Sonic inner to go along with the new look, chassis and power train.
The fascination about celebrities and sports means that when something negative comes to light, particularly when it is leaked on the Internet, it spreads like wildfire. We are sure that New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan would love this story to go away, but even as his team heads for the playoffs, another distraction centering around Rex Ryan's wife and fetish photos emerge.
Earlier, it was videos, which appear to be of Rex Ryan's wife Michelle, which were the distraction. Now, the latest embarrassment for he, his wife, and the Jets are a new set of Rex Ryan wife photos," with some of them being X-rated.
MediaTakeout.com has the latest set of Rex Ryan wife phones, showing a woman who strongly resembles Rex Ryan's wife Michelle in a rather compromising position, having her feet sniffed by someone who is definitely not Rex Ryan. There are other images, if you drill down into the story, that show Ryan's wife in seductive poses without underwear.
When asked for comment by the New York Daily News, a Jets spokesperson said,
"Coach Ryan considers this a personal matter and will have no comment."
The Jets' GM, Mike Tannenbaum, has previously said Rex Ryan has the organization's full support. The Jets (11-5), despite resting their starters, destroyed the 5-11 Buffalo Bills 38-7 in their final regular season game.
General Motors announced on Wednesday that the Chevrolet Volt, its plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, will achieve the equivalent of 93 MPG in combined city and highway driving while under battery power. The Chevrolet Volt has a 25-50 mile range on all-elecric use, at which point a small electric generator kicks in to generate power for the car.
Meanwhile, under generator power alone, the Volt will get 37 MPG. If being used in a generator / battery driving cycle, GM said the Volt will get 60 MPG, GM said.
Nissan Leaf EPA rating
Earlier this week, Nissan announced that the Nissan Leaf, its all-electric vehicle, will achieve the equivalent of 99 MPG in combined city and highway driving. How does an all-electric vehicle use any gasoline at all? Well, after all, there is energy used, and thus the EPA is using the new MPGe measurement for both cars. The EPA has created a metric that essentially translates a kilowatt hour an equivalent energy rating for a gallon of gas, and created an MPGe rating.
What's interesting is that the Leaf has been given a range of only 73 miles on the EPA label. Nissan has said 100 miles would be a typical "average" range. It's been estimated that the car could have a range of from 40 - 140 miles depending on driving style and conditions.
Both the Volt and the Leaf will begin rolling out to customers in the next few weeks.
Terry Lee Collins, born in 1927 in 1949 at Midland, Michigan is an American baseball manager for the New York Mets in Major League Baseball. Collins is known as a "fiery and intense manager."Terry Collins has a career major league managing record of 444 wins and 434 loses.
Collins was hired as manager of the Anaheim Angels in 1997 season.He obviously got a vote of confidence from the front office, but the players had Petition GM Bill Bavasi firing him.Collins signed a three-year contract to manage orix Buffaloes in the Pacific League in Japan.
Collins became the leader of China's national baseball team at the end of the year, in time for the 2009 World Baseball Classic.Collins spent the 2010 season as the minor-league field coordinator for the New York Mets organization.He will be named manager of the Mets.
Apple is rapidly running out of time to make their promise that iOS 4.2 would launch in November. The company has just released a new gold master build for iOS 4.2, 4.2.1.
As opposed to the earlier re-released GM build, which was for iPad only, this build is across all devices supported by iOS 4.x. The build is number 8C148, and reportedly fixes major Exchange and audio issues that have been documented on Apple’s developer forums.
Normally we would expect this to delay the release of iOS 4.2 by another week. The most recent rumored date was Nov. 24th. However, according to the report, Apple QA has been told to complete testing on the new build by this weekend, "no matter what." That points to Apple attempting to keep the release to that schedule.
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