GM Recalls 68,000 Chevy Bolts

General Motors has issued a recall for all Chevy Bolts from the model year 2017-2019 due to a fire risk posed by defective batteries.

2017 Chevy Bolt Premier

The fire risk was caused by a software defect in the vehicle, and GM is telling owners to set the battery so it does not charge above 90% and not to park the vehicle in an enclosed area. I believe this is a scary situation for most owners.

GM discovered the defect after 5 vehicles caught fire with no damage to the battery and harmed 2 people due to smoke inhalation from the battery fire. Thank goodness no one was killed.

GM tried to do the right thing when the company filed a voluntary recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on November 13. According to GM’s executive chief engineer, Jesse Ortega, over 50,000 of the 68,000 vehicles recalled are located in the United States. It seems GM is trying to do the right thing by being forthcoming with the facts.

The source of the battery problems became clear when GM conducted an investigation and tracked the source of the problem down to practices at the facility run by LG Chem in Ochang, Korea. That information also came from Jesse Ortega. This is why I believe car manufacturing should be returned to the US.

According to Ortega, GM has been aware of the potential problem since the summer of 2020, but couldn’t get access to the data from the cars to verify it. You would think with all the connectivity cars have these days, that data could have been accessed much more rapidly.

Ortega says that the problem occurs when the batteries are at or near a full charge, so be sure to keep your batteries at 90% or below as GM has instructed.

Be sure not to attempt this yourself as you can easily go to a dealership and have them apply the software update to your Chevy Bolt. Just click this link to learn all about the update process and anything else about your Bolt that you wish to know.

Chevy dealerships have been doing the update since November 17, so make sure to take your Bolt in for the update as soon as possible. Drivers, stay safe out there.