GM Warns Bolt Owners to Avoid Unattended Charging or Parking Their EVs Inside

The dependability of Chevy’s Bolt EV could have simply taken one other hit following a current warning from GM asking Bolt house owners to chorus from charging their automobiles whereas unattended or parking their EVs inside.

The warning was issued earlier this week “out of an abundance of caution” after two Bolt automobiles caught hearth following repairs that (considerably mockingly) have been meant to deal with a recall from 2020 relating to a battery defect that posed a fireplace threat in Chevy’s Bolt EVs.

GM says the warning pertains to Bolt EVs from 2017 to 2019 that have been topic to the original recall wherein some batteries produced by LG Chem have been discovered to have the potential to catch on hearth when charged to full or close to full capability. One of GM’s authentic fixes for the Bolt’s hearth threat was to develop new software program that capped charging at 90%, which GM says absolutely mitigates the chance of fireside.

As a part of the continuing recall, GM has additionally been servicing Bolt EV’s by checking and changing “battery module assemblies as necessary,” together with putting in new onboard diagnostic software program. Unfortunately, it appears these repairs could not have absolutely addressed the problem now that two automobiles that had been lately serviced caught on hearth.

GM says that any Bolt EV house owners who had not already introduced their automobiles in to be serviced ought to nonetheless go to a neighborhood seller whereas GM continues its investigation.

The larger difficulty is that even when the current Bolt EVs battery fires are solely restricted to a handful of instances, warning individuals to not cost their automobiles whereas unattended or park them indoors eliminates a lot of the comfort you get from proudly owning an EV. Depending on what sort of charger you employ, it may well take up to 9.5 hours or longer to completely recharge a Bolt.

Meanwhile, for anybody who owns a storage, the request by GM to park Bolt EVs exterior instantly makes an essential a part of their home a lot much less helpful.

If you’re a Bolt proprietor and have but to contact GM/Chevy or your native seller, GM says it’s best to go to Chevy’s recall site here for more information.