GM Hybrid Sales Hurt by Recall of 9,000 Faulty Batteries
By Scott Doggett June 2, 2008
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
General Motors Corp. won't sell as many hybrid cars as it had hoped this year due to 9,000 defective batteries the automaker is in the process of recalling, a company spokesman said today.
The recall affects two Saturn models – the 2007 Vue Green Line and the 2007 Aura Green Line – which are equipped with nickel-metal hydride batteries made by Michigan-based battery maker Cobasys, GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson told Green Car Advisor.
Automotive News reported that GM had planned to sell at least 27,000 of the hybrid cars in 2008. If that figure were true, it means that fully a third of the 2007 Aura and Vue hybrids GM had hoped to sell were affected. Wilkinson would not confirm that the automaker had hoped to sell of 27,000 of the vehicles, stating that GM as a policy never discloses sales goals, but he said the figure Automotive News cited "certainly gives you some idea how big the issue is."
GM knew something was wrong when an unusually high number of battery warranty claims were filed late last year, he said.
An inspection of returned batteries revealed internal cracks that allowed electrolytes to migrate to places they shouldn't within the batteries, causing the batteries to lose power.
The two Saturn models are "mild hybrids," meaning that their hybrid systems primarily save fuel by shutting off the engine when the brakes are depressed. Fuel is saved when the engine would otherwise be idling. The engine starts back up when the driver takes his foot off the brake.
But if the battery voltage drops too low, a malfunction light on the dash illuminates and the engine idles, instead of shutting down, when the vehicle comes to a stop. The car remains drivable, but the motorist doesn't get the benefit of the $2,000 hybrid system.
The defective battery "is not something that creates a huge problem for the customer," Wilkinson said. "It's not like anyone's going to have to walk home or anything like that."
Instead, the vehicles' owners receive a notice in the mail instructing them to bring their cars into Saturn dealers to have their batteries replaced at no cost to the owners.
GM initiated a phased-in recall in late December, shortly after the automaker began receiving reports of battery failures.
Because the failures appeared to be triggered by heat, owners of the stricken cars living in the South received the first recall notices, Wilkinson said. Those owners living in the northern states will be the last to receive recall notices.
Cobasys's batteries are specifically designed for GM's mild-hybrid system, so the automaker could not switch suppliers or otherwise obtain replacement batteries quickly. Hence, the phased-in recall.
As a result of the shortage of batteries due to custom manufacture, batteries that had been earmarked for the 2008 Saturn hybrids and the new Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid went into the affected 2007 models.
"I don't know how many hybrids we could have sold, but we would have had at least 9,000 more batteries for the pipeline," Wilkinson said. "It's not an insignificant number, but it's also part of what happens with a brand-new technology."
He was unwilling to discuss the cost of the battery defect to GM, saying that company policy prohibited it.
Repeated calls to Cobasys were not returned.
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