Global Recall of the Chevy Bolt Prompts GM to Temporarily Halt Production
LAKE ORION, MI—Production of 2022 Chevy Bolt passenger cars and sport-utility vehicles at the General Motors plant here will cease for at least the next two weeks. GM is investigating possible lithium-ion battery defects that increase the risk of fire and led to its global recall of the Bolt late last month.
The Bolt is a subcompact vehicle developed and assembled together with LG Corp., which manufactures the battery and drivetrain, instrumentation, and HVAC systems. Production of the vehicles had already been suspended (along with several other vehicle lines) due to the ongoing silicon chip shortage that is slowing manufacturing operations in various industries. Several media sources report that the repair process related to the recall has been suspended, too, due to difficulty securing a reliable supply of new batteries from LG.
Last November, GM began a recall of 2017-2019 Chevy Bolts due to a number of battery fires. In May 2021, GM said it would install new software on those affected models (and all new models) to help prevent future fires. More fires were reported after the new software had been installed.
Almost two weeks ago GM expanded the recall to include 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 Bolts and Bolt EUVs, having identified two new possible defects to the vehicles’ batteries (a torn anode tab and folded separator), which it said increases the risk of fire. GM noted it issued the recall “out of an abundance of caution,” and projected an expected cost of approximately $1 billion to implement the changes.
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