general problems of the 2019 Chevrolet Bolt Ev - part 2

I have a 2019 Chevrolet bolt with a us made battery. It is not part of the recall for battery fires. Nhtsa, Chevrolet, and lg all say that the problem with the fires is "2 rare manufacturing defects" and not an issue with the battery design or the manufacturing process. It has a 60kwh battery just like the korean made batteries that have caught fire. It is produced at an lg factory following their industrial design, and presumably the manufacturing process is the same as at the korean factory - since it was a defect that caused the problem, and not a manufacturing problem. However, lg has had to recall batteries made for other brands of autos. Lg has had to recall home storage batteries. Looking at all the different batteries that lg has had to recall, how can I trust NHTSA when they restate that the problem is a rare manufacturing defect that was identified by Chevrolet and lg? can I believe something that was identified by a manufacturer who has had to recall multiple batteries for multiple cars and stationary situations? I would like you to investigate the manufacturing process that lg uses, and be sure the non-recalled batteries are truly safe, especially for the 2019 Chevrolet bolts that have the exact same battery as the ones that caught fire. Thank you. Anne mellinger-birdsong 934 artwood rd ne atlanta, GA 30307.

The recall on the defective batteries in the 2017-2019 Chevrolet Bolt Evs has presented a safety risk and a loss of function that has reached a completely unacceptable level. Us as owners are living under the spectre of a fire that can cause significant personal or property damage and to date, gm's recalls have failed. Gm just released their second recall for the issue after fires continued after applying the first fix. In addition, the guidance of how to use the vehicle after completing the new recall renders the car unusable from a practical perspective. As an electric vehicle, range is limited and is affected by cold temperatures and highway miles. The guidance to reduce the charge to a maximum of 90% and never drive below 70-miles range severely hampers the usefulness of the vehicle. Additional guidance includes not parking indoors, and not charging overnight. The car takes 8-hours to charge; how are we to avoid overnight charging? the gm recall has been ongoing for many months and has now failed; putting all owners in danger both physically and financially. Something needs to be done to protect owners. At this point, only a buy-back seems viable to avoid severe damages to owners. As it is, the resale value of the vehicle has plummeted due to these severe safety issues.

The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet Bolt Ev. The contact received notification for NHTSA campaign number: 21v560000 (electrical system) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount for the recall repair. The dealer was contacted and informed the contact that no parts were available for the recall repair. The contact had not experienced a failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue however, no further assistance was taken. VIN tool confirms parts not available.

Chevrolet has a major safety defect on their hands with the 2017-2019 Bolt Ev. In 2020 a safety recall was issued on the Bolt Ev around batteries catching fire in unattended new, low mileage vehicles. A temporary fix was assigned to restrict the battery's state of charge to 90%. After several months, a "final" software fix was issued to address the problem (n202311731). Since this fix, two additional fires have occurred in low mileage / non-abused or damaged vehicles. Today Chevrolet issued an additional recall (n212343880) stating that battery cell swaps would be required and owners should not maintain a state of charge outside of 30%-90% (reducing the range from 235 miles to 140 miles or less). As an owner with some moderate knowledge of lithium polymer batteries, I do not have confidence that Chevrolet will be able to successfully detect manufacturing defects at scale and replace all impacted cells. As this is the third critical safety recall on a single component, which is fully warranted and under a low mileage, NHTSA needs to critically review if Chevrolet dealerships have the capabilities and training to properly diagnose and replace individual lipo cells within a battery pack. As an owner, the only "real" solution which would give confidence of a safe vehicle would be a full battery pack replacement, or a full buy back of the vehicle in question, regardless of local state lemon laws. So far, vehicle buybacks seem strongly tied to local state lemon laws. This is an unacceptable situation for owners from a safety position.

This is the second recall for the same problem. In the original recall, gm attempted to identify defective battery modules and then replace. They also installed software to monitor the batter in an effort to detect defective modules. Clearly this approached has failed. Will the NHTSA review gm's new methodology to identify defective battery modules? if their approach failed the first time, how do we know it will be successful this time?.

After having the car's software "fixed" in may 2021 according to the previous recall instructions, we are informed that battery fires may occur in 2017-2019 chevy Bolt Evs with defective battery packs manufactured in s korea by lg energy. Based on our VIN, gm informs us that the battery pack in our 2019 boltev was made by lg energy and instructed us to limit charging and keep the battery within a limited charge range. In our living situation we cannot park the car outside as also advised by gm due to the battery fire hazard. Therefore, we now face severe limitations in owning and driving this car. 1. The danger of a car fire originating in the battery, endangering residents and common property in our condo building, including cars parked in neighboring spaces in the building's ground-floor garage, potentially leading to a condo association requirement that we park the car off-site, at considerable expense and inconvenience; 2. Greatly reduced battery range: only 110-mile range instead of the advertised 238-mile range, greatly reducing the feasibility of longer-range travel in the car; 3. Massively reduced resale value due to these issues, making it financially impossible for us to replace the car on our own; due to the problems with this vehicle, we cannot drive or charge it as advertised, nor easily replace it. Gm should either promptly replace the entire battery pack to entirely eliminate the chance of a battery fire from this defect or buy the vehicle back for a reasonable sum that compensates us for this grave disappointment and allows us to purchase a new boltev with minimal cost to us, the innocent consumers.

The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet Bolt Ev. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 21v560000 (electrical system) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact called the local dealer and it was confirmed that parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was notified but no further assistance was provided. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.

My vehicle is fully electric and has been under a recall for fire risk from the high-voltage battery. I completed the remedy from the manufacturer earlier this year, but now a new recall has been placed because the original remedy didn't actually fix the problem. The manufacturer is now stating that they will need to replace some/all of the battery, and they've said it isn't safe to charge the vehicle overnight, charge it in my garage, or charge it fully to 100% capacity. This means I'm unable to use my vehicle safely to drive to work or other required activities. I'm dissatisfied with general motors' response to this safety issue, and I'm requesting that they approve vehicle buy backs for any owners of affected vehicles who request them to do so.

The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet Bolt Ev. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 21v560000 (electrical system) however, the part to do the recall repair was not available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The contact was concerned that the vehicle may catch on fire in his senior townhome community. The dealer was made aware of the recall but informed the contact that they were not aware when parts would be available. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available.

In response to safety recall n202311731, gm updated the battery management software in my 2019 bolt on 6/4/21. I was not satisfied that updating the software would solve a physical battery pack problem and requested a buyback (which gm had been granting since February 2021). Gm case no. 9-6763124491 declined on 6/29/21, and gm referred me to bbb autoline. Gm rep would not tell me why my case was declined when many others were clearly approved. Vermont bolt burned on 7/1/21. Filed bbb case no. Chv2119981 7/2/21. On 7/13/21 bbb determined my complaint not "within the jurisdiction" of the program because there were "less than 2 repair attempts". Now gm issues 2nd recall n212343880 saying that batteries may be replaced, but gives no timeframe. While I wait with a potential fire/safety issue, the recall instructs me to limit charges, limit charge down (resulting in only 63% useful charge), park outside, do not charge overnight. My landlord has told me that I cannot park my bolt on the property, so I now have no access to charge my car. I'm afraid he will not renew my lease (we are in CA at beginning of fire season). Gm will not tell me what happens when the software identifies a problem--the rep just repeats that "gm has total confidence in the update". I have no idea how long I will have a limited use car. I do not have enough range to visit and care for my aging father. Gm should buy back bolts from owners who cannot operate their cars under the new recall limitations, especially since there is no timeframe given.

The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet Bolt Ev. The contact received notification for NHTSA campaign number: 21v560000 (electrical system) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was contacted and confirmed that the part was not available. The contact had not experienced a failure. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available.

As a 2019 bolt owner I am once again being asked by gm to limit my charging to 90%, do not charge unattended ( overnight while you sleep) , and do not park in the garage or carport. My family does not want to ride in my vehicle due to fire risks. Trade in values are greatly affected to any 2019 bolt now. I do not feel safe and I want gm to buyback my 2019 bolt ASAP. How many more fires must 2019 bolt owners endure until gm is forced to buy all of them back? how many people will need to die first???.

There is an open recall on my vehicle, but chevy never notified me about it. I received an email about the initial recall in November 2020, but found out about this most recent recall only from the chevy Bolt Ev facebook group I am part of. Searching my VIN on the chevy website did not yield any results for a couple of weeks (now it says that there is an open recall but no remedy yet), but now searching the VIN and looking at the battery sticker information tells me that I am, indeed, part of this recall and have never heard anything directly from chevy. Many others in the group reported receiving an email but I have not received any communication. This seems very suspect and very dangerous. I purchased the car used from a dealer but since I received the original Nov 2020 recall information I know that chevy has my information, they just didn't contact me for some reason.

Owners of 2019 bolts are being cautioned to keep their cars parked outside. Some 2019 bolts have ignited even after both recall battery fixes. My bolt can only be parked outside, very close to neighbors and under trees.

The car’s electronics under the hood got very hot when charging at level 2 (chargepoint wall charger) at home at night in mild ambient conditions (low 70s deg f). The surface of the electronic component boxes on top of the engine compartment were very hot to the touch but not burning the skin. It is not clear whether the propulsion battery also got very hot or not, but later on car’s display showed that car consumed 10% of used electricity for “battery conditioning” since the last full charge, namely since the car was unplugged and started to use battery power to keep battery cooling system going. This implies that it is quite possible that the battery also got hot (>100 deg f, since this temperature is what I have had observed in the past was the trigger temperature for initiating battery conditioning/cooling, e. G. 30 minutes into fast charging - fcdc - when ambient temperature was in the low 90s). The temperature measured by electronic thermometer on the surface of one of the electronics boxes under the hood indicated 113 deg f one hour after the car was unplugged and moved out of the garage, while the ambient temperature was measured to be 72 deg f. This implies the temperature of car components was even higher an hour earlier during and right after charging. If the car continued to charge, it is possible it would be in danger of catching fire since it appears the cooling system was not able to stop electrical component temperatures from rising. As far as I am aware, this car is the only Bolt Ev that has been observed to reach unexpectedly high temperatures when level 2 charging (240v 32a = 7. 6 kw) without actually catching on fire.

The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet Bolt Ev. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number 21v560000 (electrical system) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The local dealer was contacted, and it was confirmed that the part was not available. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available.

My bolt was purchased in sept. 2019. It was not part of the initial NHTSA recall because it has a battery made in the u. S. However, Chevrolet still issued a company recall on it and performed a software update, evaluation of battery health, and installed an on-board diagnostic module. The "final fix" as it is called. Even though my battery appears to be safe, it has the same design, materials and similar manufacturing practices by the same company, as the cars that have caught fire. Now there has been a battery fire in a bolt in vermont that had the "final fix" installed. (not my car, it's in another state) I am concerned that the battery problem is in the design and how it is built, not due to a faulty manufacturing contaminiation that could only occur in korea. And I'm also concerned that the "final fix" is not sufficient to take care of the problem. I am asking you to investigate all the lg batteries in all the bolts to determine if they truly are safe.

I have a Chevrolet Bolt Ev that was recalled due to risk of battery fires. It took many months of waiting and being unable to charge the car fully, but a fix was issued that scanned the battery and added monitoring software. Two fires have since occurred on 2019s with the fix applied. So now gm has said to follow these guidelines until they can find and fix a separate issue. My car is unusable under the guidance that gm has issued, which includes no charging overnight, no parking inside, no charging to 100% and try not to run below 70 miles of charge. There is no timeline for the repair for the recall and I have no confidence that they will fix the batteries appropriately since they are saying they will replace parts of the batteries rather than whole batteries, but as I understand it, new and old battery parts aren't safe to mix. The car is unusable, unsafe and a fire hazard on my property despite having less than 15k miles on it, but I cannot get gm to give me a loaner or let me park it at a dealership while I wait four or more weeks for a review on a potential buy back case.

My bolt falls under the recall for a main battery pack defect that has resulted in several car fires. Chevy states we should part outside our garage if the car is parked and charged there. This is a major inconvenience to owning the car. I requested a buyback several months ago when they were being offered by chevy. Since ohio's lemon laws are poor I was denied. I had little faith chevy could find the problem with software and I was correct.

Gm recall number n202311731 I am dissatisfied with the gm’s response to this recall that addresses fires involving their battery charging system in the chevy bolt. The long-awaited final remedy is a setup for failure. Installing a software monitoring system to look for the theoretical cause of the problem is inadequate and fails to protect consumer safety. They allege, without providing consumers with the undisclosed engineering analysis that underpins their solution, that this is the best they can offer. Their plan is to monitor for electrical aberrations in the cars’ electrical/battery system instead of replacing the faulty system. By analogy this is like a home builder acknowledging that they installed faulty wiring in your home that does not meet code and there have been a number of fires. However, instead of replacing the faulty wiring, they are installing a monitoring system that looks for changes in resistance or areas of high temperature in your walls and shuts down your power before they think your house will explode into flames. Gm has not provided any testing in the real world of this "remedy", and asks that we trust their engineers. I would like to see an independent assessment of this, not paid for by Chevrolet or gm. I have no confidence in this or with gm's assertions that it is the best they can do to protect the safety of the public. As a health and safety professional, I am appalled at this solution at its acceptance. I cannot believe that this would be approved as a remedy for an aircraft problem. The more recent and less publicized boeing max airliners’ electrical problems require replacement of the bonding between electrical panels and their contacts. Nhtsa should demand full disclosure of all studies done for gm’s bolt recommendation, and publication on the NHTSA site for a period of public comment. I adamantly reject that this has been conducted by gm in a transparent manner or that it is the safest response. Thank you.

The center touchscreen will intermittently freeze when started and not recover when driving. When this occurs the hvac and radio hard buttons also stop responding which prevents control of the defrost, creating a visibility hazard that could result in a crash. Sometimes the freeze will result in the backup camera remaining on while driving forward. When in reverse the freeze results in the backup camera guidelines, parking collision warning and rear cross traffic warning being unavailable. Failure of these systems intended to prevent collisions is a safety hazard because unavailability of these systems could result in a collision. The freezing did not occur frequently when the vehicle was new, but over time this has become a frequent occurrence. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. The problem has been reproduced by a dealer and been subject to repair twice, but the issue has continued to occur after each repair attempt. The vehicle was subject to bulletin 20-na-119 which was intended to correct radio screen black/freezes after boot up, but this does not appear to have resolved the issue.

Around 11:00am on 5/1/21 Saturday morning noticed thick smoke coming out of the rear side of the car parked in the garage and it was not connected to the charger and shouted at my family & kids to come out of the house and when I opened the garage shutters I saw fire in the rear of car from beneath and the rear seats, which my neighbors witnessed too we called 911 meanwhile we tried to extinguish the fire using the kitchen fire extinguisher which did not help at all and it turned into a big blaze and set the whole garage on fire and burning the motor cycle and snow thrower parked in the garage and also got to the Nissan amada SUV parked right in front of the garage and the fire went into the master bed room upstairs and fire team later put off the fire but the car battery was still smoking until 2-2:30pm. The car was serviced on 3/25/2021 at pohanka chevy, chantilly and they did apply the safety recall-high voltage battery may melt or burn hybrid power train control module 2 reprogramming with sps and attached is copy of invoice stating the same.

I just want the battery pack to be replaced with one that does not catch fire due to manufacturing defects. Nearly all of the fires have been 2019 model years. There were 16,418 bolts produced in the us-market for the model year 2019. If I take a ballpark half of the vehicles with korean cells, and half of the vehicles produced with cells in holland michigan (the holland cells not having the defect), to-date we are looking at 5 in 8,209 cars catching fire due to the battery defect. That translates to 1 in every 1,641 2019-model-year korean-cell bolts catching fire, to-date. Statistically, this number cannot go down. This represents a much higher percentage than what gm is publicly stating. This is a much higher, unacceptable risk. Gm needs to be replacing these defective batteries, or we will continue to see more fires. A software update and battery voltage check is unacceptable, as these defective cells made passed the test to make it into these cars in the first place. Model year 2019 fires: ashburn, https://insideevs. . Read more...

My car is in the chevy bolt recall due to battery fires. Many months ago chevy took away 5 to 10% of my e-mpg in order to lessen the likelihood of fire. When I heard they had a fix, I immediately called. I was told I will not be able to have my car checked and repaired/restored until November. This is an inordinately long time to be driving a car on recall due to possible battery fire.

Vehicle will not charge fully due to battery catching on fire.

Gm recalled bolt for possible battery fire in 2020 & 2021. At the 2nd recall, I started msrp swap with gm. Since gm dragged my case intentionally, I filed bbb auto complaint. Though bbb, gm agreed with msrp swap on 9/9 (verbal agreement between bbb & gm). Since then gm has been silent. Gm claimed they can't find a dealership to do msrp swap. However, as a consumer, this isn't my problem, but gm needs to step up to find a dealership for msrp swap. Otherwise, gm's msrp swap agreement is useless. Meanwhile, gm recommended bolt owners to charge up to 90% of battery capacity, maintain battery mileage above 70m, park 50ft from building/other cars, and park open space. The car is basically useless, and we fear our car might burn down our house/life as well as neighbors.

I currently lease a 2019 Chevrolet bolt which is part of the recall announced today by gm. This is the second recall in less than a year for the same battery-related issue. It was supposed to have been fixed with a software update that I had completed in March. This software was supposed to identify defective batteries but it has not been successful as evidenced by the mounting number of fires that have happened after the “fix”. As such, we are now under a recall a second time. As a result of their own manufacturing issue, we are now limited to how we charge our vehicles, where we park and even the mileage range that we paid for, while gm attempts another fix. Gm stated that they will again be using software to identify defective cells in our batteries and only the ones that are deternined to be defective will have those cells or battery packs replaced. As you can imagine, I no longer trust gm to be able to successfully identify whether or not my battery is defective. This is a serious safety issue. My family, my property and even people I park next to while out in public are at risk. Gm must be forced to either replace the entire battery pack in every vehicle affected by this recall or replace them with newer models containing safer batteries. They must also provide loaner vehicles, or details on reimbursement for rental cars, to those who need them due to the fact that their vehicle is virtually unusable until gm provides a complete, effective solution.

Since about November of 2020 this vehicle has been under a recall, due to potential fire danger of the batteries. The interim solution was to not charge the battery above 90%. Within the last couple of months a "final" solution was initiated by gm, to solve this potential fire situation. I have had this "final" solution performed on my vehicle by the dealer. Now, we are informed that fires are still happening on these vehicles, even with the final repair. We are now told do not charge overnight un-monitored. Do not let the battery get below 30% or above about 80%. Do not store the vehicle in doors. I now read that gm does not expect any sort of "new" solution until September, or perhaps later. None of this works for us, with our current usage of this vehicle as our main transportation.

The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet bolt. The contact received a notification for NHTSA campaign number: 21v560000 (electrical system); however, the parts for the repair were unavailable. The dealer had been notified about the recall and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The manufacturer had been notified of the recall. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the repair. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.

In the early morning hours of October 21st, around 3am, we were woken up by smoke/fire alarms. We started running around our home to identify the cause of the alarm. After about 5 minutes of searching inside the home and finding nothing, we realized that there was some smell of smoke coming from the garage and when the mudroom door which leads to the garage was opened, we found that the chevy bolt was on fire and there was lot of smoke in the garage. The chevy bolt was parked/stationary in door 3 section of the garage and our other car was parked in door 1 section of the garage. The door 2 section of the garage was empty at the time of the incident. With chevy bolt on fire, we saw that the door 3 section of the garage was engulfed in flames and filled with smoke. We tried to use the fire extinguisher to put-off the fire but could not contain the spread of the fire. The chevy bolt was kept for charging overnight , as has been the general practice that we have been following for around 2 years. We called 911 as soon as we saw the garage in flames and fire engines arrived within 15 minutes but the fire had spread widely and caused rampant damages to the entire garage including the other car, bedroom on the top of the garage in the second floor and the bedroom adjoining the garage in the first floor. While all the occupants of the home got out within around 8 minutes of hearing the fire alarm, the fire and heat/smoke spread quickly to washer/dryer section, eat in dining, kitchen, family room and formal dining room. The other sections of the home including the foyer, office room, sun room and all of the bedrooms upstairs were quickly filled by smoke and soot. The heat inside the home was so much that one can literally see the framing studs. The township fire and police department arrived promptly on the scene and have been diligently following up on the investigation.

Chevy bolt finished changing and then started to smoke from under the car. The sound of popping noises were heard and then 10 minutes later the car was engulfed in flames. The cars battery pack starting popping then exploded in flames.

I was driving my chevy bolt at approximately 40-45 mph when it was at about 50% charge capacity when all of a sudden the car sharply decelerated and warning lights came on saying the charge was down to 0 and that it needed to be recharged immediately. I pulled over to the side of the road and called for help. There's no way the car should have lost 50% of it's charge out of nowhere like that. I was not able to restart the car or regain power. It has to be towed to the dealer.

Since new I've had an issue with the Bolt Ev's infotainment display going black to include the backup camera. I cannot control the screen, the climate control settings or anything. I've been bringing it in since it was new and was told by Chevrolet that it's normal operation. Now it's fried with a burning electrical smell in the center of the dashboard and uncontrollable or unresettable. I have video of the incident and have taken videos of prior incidents which gm states they cannot fix based off of a video of the occurrance. It won't allow me to upload here. I can provide if need be.

At approximately 4 am on 10/6/2020, we (myself and my children) woke up to an explosion. I ran to find out what it was and saw smoke entering our home under the door going out to the garage. I grabbed my children and got out of the house as fast as I could. When I opened the front door of my house to go outside, there were flames coming out the front of the garage and the garage was engulfed in flames. We ran across the street to our neighbors house and I called 911, by this time, our entire garage was engulfed in flames. Our 2019 chevy bolt was plugged in charging in the garage overnight, as I have done regularly since purchasing the vehicle in December 2019 without issue. After calling 911, there continued to be a bunch of loud �pop� sounds and another smaller explosion. The fire department arrived, and while they were able to extinguish the fire prior to the flames spreading to the rest of the house, our entire house is a total loss from severe smoke and water damage and black soot covering every inch of the house. Also, my daughter's room that �shares� the garage wall was completely destroyed. The smell in the entire house is indescribable, I imagine worse than a �regular� house fire because it has a chemical smell to it. The county fire investigator determined the origination was in the battery compartment of the vehicle, and since the incident, there has been an investigation where multiple fire investigators, engineers from gm and a representative from NHTSA all were present to investigate and remove the vehicle from the garage. We, personally, have not received any reports from this extensive investigation to provide any further information to the cause.

General motors will not provide a solution to potential battery fires, as identified in their recent recall of Chevrolet bolts. Mine is a 2019 and is part of the current recall.