If the ongoing supply chain issues impacting the automotive industry aren't hard enough to deal with, General Motors said it will spend a total of $1.8 billion to replace potential defective battery modules in Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles (EVs).
GM expanded the recall of Chevy Bolt EVs to cover all remaining 2019 and 2020 to 2022 model year vehicles, which would cost an additional $1 billion. Initially, the company planned to spend $800 million on the battery replacement program.
About 73,000 vehicles in the U.S. and Canada will be added to the recall. The initial recall — for cars globally from model years 2017 to 2019 — was about 69,000 vehicles.
GM said the batteries for the Bolt may have two manufacturing defects: a torn anode tab; or a folded separator. This is present in the same battery cell, which increases the risk of fire.
The batteries, supplied by LG, were disassembled by GM and the defects were discovered as manufacturing problems with certain battery cells produced at LG’s Ochang, Korea plant. GM and LG are working to rectify the issues of the defects but as a precaution, GM is replacing the batteries.
Until consumers can receive replacement modules, GM said they should:
- Set the vehicle to 90% state of charge limitation using Target Charge Level mode.
- Charge vehicles more frequently and avoid depletion of battery below 70 miles.
- Park vehicles outside after charging and not leave the vehicles charging indoors overnight.
