Yahoo Autos 
Another Chevy Volt fire risk? Power cords may ignite
The biggest difference between the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf may be the $150 price difference between their 120-volt charge cords.
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In response to a federal probe of battery fires in crash-tested Chevrolet Volts, GM took the unprecedented move of offering Volt owners free loaner cars and vowed that the car was safe.
But Yahoo! Autos has found that Chevrolet Volt owners have been reporting a different problem for months: Overheating and melting of the cord used to charge the car from standard 120-volt household electrical sockets. While GM says the cords are safe and blames the problems on the owners’ wiring, it has replaced an unknown number of cords and made changes to its design.
No fires have been reported from the cords, nor have any complaints been reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Yahoo! Autos learned through an exclusive source that the problem did catch the attention of one electric utility which had a Volt cord melt while the car was charging -- and suspected the cord’s construction played a role.
The cord supplied with every Volt is meant to work as a stopgap for a dedicated charging station that GM and other automakers expect electric vehicle owners to install. It consists of a black control system and two yellow extension-cord lengths, one running to a grounded 120V plug, the other to the charger that plugs into the car.
Since the Volt’s rollout last year, several owners have posted on the GM-Volt.com forum reporting troubles with the 120V cord. According to an informal poll on the site, 19 of 53 users responding have had some kind of fault with the cord that has required replacement, with five saying their 120V cords needed to be replaced twice.
