Chevrolet Bolt EV battery recall: Is GM required to switch the battery?

GM’s up to date car software program replace will allow the automotive to watch itself over the subsequent 10,000 kilometres. If the batteries are deemed “wholesome,” your Bolt is free and clear beneath the recall. The software program will routinely restore full charging functionality with out necessitating a go to to a dealership. If not, the battery module (the pack that features all the person little batteries) should get replaced by GM.

It’s possible that solely a small proportion of the battery modules from these years poses a threat of fireplace. The diagnostic software program improve will keep away from the large waste concerned in changing good battery packs and cut back the demand for essential electrical car (EV) battery metals, that are briefly provide worldwide.

Can GM’s Bolt software program replace actually decide if the battery is secure?

The brand new software-based resolution is probably going an efficient repair. Usually talking, car producers have been extra delicate to fires of their EVs than in gasoline automobiles, as a result of they need to guarantee a clean uptake of this new expertise. GM applied a lot better inside controls for figuring out and correcting security defects after a 2010 ignition key recall that was chargeable for 124 or extra deaths. GM’s area reporting, recall compliance, engineering and finance departments have been all upgraded to search out and repair security defects extra proactively. And, based on printed studies, many of the monetary price of this recall is being lined by LG Chem—the battery maker. So, GM possible will not be the first beneficiary of the associated fee financial savings.

When did GM drop the guarantee extension?

In June 2023, GM took the guarantee extension off the desk for Bolt homeowners receiving the software program repair. Because the proprietor of a 2020 Bolt, you’ll not obtain the extra guarantee protection supplied to the homeowners who acquired substitute battery packs, which was accompanied by a “reset” of the unique 8-year/160,000-kilometre guarantee. And you continue to received’t have a ultimate reply in regards to the well being of your car’s batteries, nor full charging functionality, for an additional 10,000 kilometres. For a low-mileage Bolt driver, that might quantity to a different 12 months of ready for a definitive final result.

Even when the unique batteries in your Bolt are getting older usually, degradation within the vary of three% to 4% yearly is taken into account regular. So, the batteries in your Bolt are possible a bit degraded in comparison with a Bolt that acquired a brand new module.

Doing it your self will not be an answer

One complainant to the Car Safety Affiliation (APA) inquired about changing their Chevy Bolt batteries at their very own expense and claiming a reimbursement from GM. At $28,000 plus set up for a substitute battery module, this resolution doesn’t seem like life like. A greater choice can be to discover a supply that gives further guarantee protection equal to what GM reneged on and ask the automaker to refund the price of buying it. To date, the APA will not be conscious of any mechanical insurance coverage supplier for automobiles that provides that kind of protection on a battery module.

What to do in regards to the GM Bolt battery recall

There’s not a lot you are able to do in regards to the revised Bolt recall, sadly. The APA just lately requested that Normal Motors do the next two issues:

• Provide to increase guarantee protection to eight years from the day of the recall restore no matter which resolution applies: Stage 1 software program replace or Stage 2 battery pack substitute. (That’s a no brainer.)
• Provide significant compensation to homeowners for the inconvenience and diminished driving vary that will in the end final for 2 or extra years. This might embrace a no-charge subscription to an in-vehicle service. Nonetheless, some homeowners will think about the inconvenience of parking outdoors over one or two winters is price greater than that.

For more information on this, go to apa.ca.

An analogous EV battery recall was dealt with higher

GM might take a web page from Hyundai Canada’s playbook. Hyundai devised a intelligent resolution for the same battery substitute recall for the Kona EV. It supplied homeowners $5 a day for on daily basis their Kona EV needed to be parked outdoor whereas ready for substitute batteries. Complaints to the APA evaporated after this system was introduced. Kona EV homeowners have been unusually not in a rush to be first in line for substitute battery packs! From the angle of many Kona homeowners, $150 a month was ok to cowl the inconvenience.