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The most overlooked story of this weekend was the announcement that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave the Chevy Volt a clean bill of health, determining that the vehicle does not pose any unusual risk of fire. But will the damning press coverage that tried to paint the Volt as the heir apparent to the Chevy Corvair’s “unsafe at any speed” moniker, reflect these vindicating results?

As you may recall, the Volt - Chevrolet’s first plug-in hybrid vehicle - was the subject of some very breathless reporting regarding vehicle fires that occurred during crash testing for the NHTSA.  Was the vehicle a potential “fire trap” in the case of an accident?  Here’s a not too atypical example of how the Volt was portrayed:

A symbol of the government bailout and continued ownership of General Motors, the Volt has been hailed as the vehicle of the future by the Obama Administration’s green energy pushers.
Now, the Volt is in danger of taking down the entire electric car industry as concerns about fire hazards involving the vehicles battery cooling system are creating a backlash across the nation.

Wow, that’s some pretty scary stuff.  So what did the NHTSA actually discover?  The agency reported that it “remains unaware of any real-world crashes that have resulted in a battery-related fire involving the Chevy Volt or any other electric vehicle.  NHTSA continues to believe that electric vehicles show great promise as a safe and fuel-efficient option for American drivers.” (Emphasis mine.)

Chevy has made a change to the vehicle that will be retrofitted onto all existing Volts and incorporated into the assembly of all new vehicles to prevent the problem that arose during the crash testing.  Aaron Bragman, an analyst with IHS Automotive told the LA Times, “GM came out with a fix for it because it was a public relations issue, but from an engineering viewpoint there really wasn’t a problem with the car, considering the conditions of the test needed to create a fire.”

This is all very good news for American consumers as gasoline prices are predicted to rise even more in the coming year.  Even better news for California consumers, Chevy will be introducing a California-only version of the Volt in March that will qualify for a $1,500 state rebate and, even more valuable, single occupant access to California’s carpool lanes.

It will be interesting to see how opponents of EVs, like the Leaf, and PHEVs, like the Volt, will spin this news.  More likely than not, they will ignore it altogether.