General Motors has launched an advertising campaign touting the safety of the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in electric vehicle, just as its CEO testified to Congress that a recent Volt fire that took place after a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash test would never occur under real-world circumstances, Bloomberg News reported.
GM CEO Dan Akerson (pictured) said in the campaign that he "couldn't be prouder" of the technology the company uses to produce the Volt, the wire service reported. The campaign includes full-page ads in 19 U.S. daily newspapers, including the New York Times, as well as a television ad that will debut on News Corp.'s Fox News Channel, Bloomberg said. GM has also released a new "normal" ad promoting the Volt that calls it "the car America had to build." You can watch the 30-second clip after the jump.
Akerson spoke Wednesday in a hearing with the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending. Both he and NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said the car was safe and defended NHTSA's handling of the situation against accusations from some Republican members of Congress who've been critical of the Obama Administration and its relationship with GM.
NHTSA said late last week that it finished its two-month investigation into the crash test that resulted in a fire three weeks after the fact last summer, and concluded that neither the Volt nor other electric vehicles pose more of a fire risk than conventional vehicles.
Source: Autoblog Green
