GM Friday afternoon announced it would expand its Bolt recall to ALL Chevy Bolts including ones manufactured in the US and including the 2022 EV and EUVs. It looks like LG is being thrown under the bus here. GM has changed its tone on the recall press releases, now putting the blame squarely on the battery supplier.
General Motors is voluntarily expanding the current Chevrolet Bolt EV recall to cover the remaining 2019 and all 2020-2022 model year vehicles, including the Bolt EUV. In rare circumstances, the batteries supplied to GM for these vehicles may have two manufacturing defects – a torn anode tab and folded separator – present in the same battery cell, which increases the risk of fire. Out of an abundance of caution, GM will replace defective battery modules in Chevrolet Bolt EVs and EUVs with new modules, with an expected additional cost of approximately $1 billion.
Just 5 days ago we noted that GM expanded the recall to fully replace all batteries in affected Chevy Bolts with batteries made in Korea, which happened until mid-2020.
Today’s announcement comes as we’ve reported 2 separate incidents of 2020 models with batteries made in the US exploding. We’ve compiled a full list of all Chevy Bolt Fires here.
In the short term, GM reccomends:
- Set Bolt to a 90 percent state of charge limitation using Target Charge Level mode. Instructions on how to do this are available on chevy.com/boltevrecall. If customers are unable to successfully make these changes, or do not feel comfortable making these changes, GM is asking them to visit their dealer to have these adjustments completed.
- Charge their vehicle more frequently and avoid depleting their battery below approximately 70 miles (113 kilometers) of remaining range, where possible.
- Park their vehicles outside immediately after charging and should not leave their vehicles charging indoors overnight.
This includes all Bolts ever made, including 2022 EVs and EUVs still sitting on GM lots.
