GM recalls 68,600 Chevy Bolts for fire risk, offers warning
General Motors is recalling all 2017-2019 model year all-electric Chevrolet Bolts because they may pose a fire risk.
The automaker is warning owners of those vehicles that until dealers can make a software fix, they should reset their battery to a maximum of 90% charge to lessen the risk of the car catching on fire. If they cannot do that, GM advises to not park the car in a garage or car port.
GM said it found five vehicles in which the batteries caught fire without any impact, injuring two people with smoke inhalation.
The automaker filed the voluntary recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Friday. It involves 68,667 vehicles globally, of those 50,925 are in the United States, said Jesse Ortega, GM’s executive chief engineer for the Chevrolet Bolt EV.
In GM’s initial investigation, it found that the five impacted Bolts, all contained high voltage batteries produced at LG Chem’s Ochang, Korea facility, Ortega said.
“We became aware of these incidents this summer and we started to work with NHTSA on this,” Ortega told reporters of GM’s ongoing investigation of the problem. “A lot of it is being able to get access to the vehicles and getting access to the data.”
Another commonality among the five vehicles was they were at full charge or right below that, and “so that jumped out at us,” Ortega said.
