GM Begins Long Process of Replacing Recalled Chevy Bolt Batteries

After several production delays, Chevy has decided to recall the Chevy Bolt EV. According to reports by Ars Technica, General Motors has begun replacing the affected vehicles’ battery packs. Chevy is starting by contacting people who bought the Bolt that were manufactured ‘during specific build timeframes’. In order to get your battery replaced, you will have to surrender your vehicle for 2 day to your local Chevy dealership. The replacement battery packs have an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

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This is going to be a very expensive recall. In fact, it’s estimated to cost Chevy almost $2 billion dollars to replace all the batteries on Bolt vehicles manufactured between 2017 and 2019. The reason these battery packs are catching on fire is due to two related problems. The first being a manufacturing defect that causes the battery’s anodes to tear and the second which causes the dielectric separators to bend. If both of those things happen in a single battery, the chance of fire is high.

LG has implemented new manufacturing processes and has worked with GM to review and enhance its quality assurance programs to provide confidence in its batteries moving forward. LG will institute these new processes in other facilities that will provide cells to GM in the future.

GM

In related news, GM is building a firmware update for the car that will provide a set of early-detection tools to assist in this ongoing problem and others like it that may arise in the future.