GM: We'll Buy Back Your Volt

General Motors says it's willing to buy back its Chevrolet Volts from any customer concerned by fires in crash tests. If needed, the auto giant also is prepared to conduct a recall of the 6,000 Volts currently on the road, Dan Akerson tells the AP. The company would fix them after the cause of the fires is determined. "If we find that is the solution, we will retrofit every one of them,” he adds.

In testing, “the fire broke out seven days later. Not seven minutes. Not seven seconds,” Akerson notes. (It may have been caused by a slow-moving chemical reaction in the damaged battery.) The company is notified via OnStar after any crash, and it sends out workers to drain the car’s battery. “I think in the interest of General Motors, the industry, the electrification of the car, it's best to get it right now than when you have—instead of 6,000—60,000 or 600,000 cars on the road,” Akerson says. In the meantime, owners can get loaners. (More General Motors stories.)