Ready for some facts?
The National Fire Protection Association says there are about 31 vehicle fires per hour in this country. That's the NORMAL rate for gasoline- and diesel-powered cars and trucks.
Since April of this year, there have been 3 fires involving Chevy Volts. According to the blog Cars in Depth: "One fire was traced to another ignition source, a second fire may have involved a Siemens charger – the investigation is proceeding, and the third fire occurred in a NHTSA storage lot after a Volt was crash tested at 40mph. Three fires in 8 months, none of them while the car was being driven."
At the January meeting, retired Division Chief Ron Moore of the McKinney, Texas Fire Department will speak to us about electric vehicles and fire safety. Ron has been featured as a content expert by General Motors in the field of vehicle rescue; specifically gasoline-electric hybrids and electric plug-ins. He has conducted hands-on extrication and vehicle rescue work on a total of seven 2011 Chevrolet Volts.
Also on the agenda: Tony Talamas will give us an overview of ECOtality, and tell us what it does to promote EV usage here in Houston. ECOtality is well-known for its EV charging stations, two of which were recently placed in the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center.
Last but not least, Peter Koeppen will describe HEAA's new "Design an EV" project.
After the meeting, we'll all gather in the parking lot to check out Bill Starr's iMiEV, on loan from Mitsubishi.
