Volt Jolt: Is Chevy Fire a Sign of Higher Electric Car Risk?

Boasting an electric hybrid engine that gets up to 95 mpg and can drive at least 35 miles using no gas at all, the Chevy Volt hit the market in 2011 with high expectations. Environmentalists lauded it as a bold step toward decreasing oil dependence, while General Motors Co. hoped it could be the future of American car manufacturing. But that trajectory hit a snag in late November, when news broke that a Volt suddenly caught fire three weeks after a routine crash test damaged the lithium-ion battery.