2019 CHEVROLET BOLT EV Complaints

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.

On May 11, 2021 I responded to GM's safety recall notice by bringing the car to a local Chevrolet dealer, who performed the service as per GM's instructions. Since then the battery has continued to charge or attempt to charge for several hours after it has been fully charged as indicated by the instrument panel readout and the dashboard indicator. I reported the problem to GM by phone several weeks ago and was instructed to bring the car back to the dealer that had performed the recall service. I did so on July 7 but I wasn't convinced that the dealer appreciated the seriousness of the problem, so I immediately called GM 's EV hotline (866-790-5600 ext. 5912316) where a case was opened. As of July 18 I am still waiting for further instructions from GM. My case number is 9-6818768332.

Component: We don't know for sure. The was a recall on the battery, and several other of these cars have had thier batteries explode in similar fashion. The primary remnants of the car are missing and are being investigated as being stolen and are unavailable for inspection. The melted remnants of the car left in the driveway are still available. Safety: We inhaled toxic vapors. Our home has been severely damaged. If the incident had happened in the middle of the night instead of in the morning, our neighbors wouldn't have been awake to call 911 and my wife and I could have died when the fire spread to the house. Has the problem been reproduced? Unknown, though this is a known issue that has happened to other cars. Has the compenent been inspected? No. The wreckage is missing and presumed stolen. Were there any warning messages: I do not believe so. My wife claims she heard a car alarm when we we awakened by the first loud noise. She does not know if the alarm came from our car. In the early AM of 7/2/2021 I awoke to smell an acrid smell. Our neighborhood often has an odd smell, so I went back to sleep. About 6 AM on 7/2/2021 my wife and I were awakend by a loud bang originating outside the house. I investigated and noted a police officer outside my home using a fire extinguisher on my 2019 Chevy Bolt. I saw flames coming from the right passenger side. The police officer asked us to exit our home. I told my wife that the house was on fire, because I believed that's what was happening. When we left the home, I noticed that, at first, it was only the car. The fire got worse very quickly., and the police officer asked us to move farther back.We heard and saw several explosions.The fire spread to the house. At some point the fire department arrived and extinguished the fire, but not before the car was completely consumed and significant damage was done to our home. My wife, I and our pets were all examined for smoke inhalation and the cats were treated.

My 2019 Chevrolet Bolt Premier has the battery made in Korea that is part of the current investigation Chevrolet is doing, announced yesterday July 14, 2021. This is the announcement from Chevrolet: JULY 14 2021 IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM GENERAL MOTORS General Motors has been notified of two recent Chevrolet Bolt EV fire incidents in vehicles that were remedied as part of the safety recall announced in November 2020. Out of an abundance of caution, we are asking owners of 2017-2019 Chevrolet Bolt EVs who were part of the recall population to park their vehicles outdoors immediately after charging and not leave their vehicles charging overnight while we investigate these incidents. This has been a known problem for several months, since November 2020, as noted in Chevrolet's announcement above. I limited my charging to 90% the minute the news broke about the possibility of a battery fire. I have had "the remedy" done to my car, which is all that one can do at this point. live in a condo building in a busy downtown setting and my only parking spot is two levels underground. It is both unsafe and very costly/inconvenient for me to have to park on the street at meters while waiting to hear ANYTHING from Chevy regarding next steps. I want to get my situation on your radar, as I am sure many other Bolt owners do. I want to stop worrying about the potential of a fire that would kill or maim any person or living creature, destroy any property, especially my home, my neighbors' homes, cars, etc. HELP!

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.

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.

I was denied the buyback by GM due to the weak lemon law in the state of Michigan. GM should be replacing these batteries if they are not allowing a buyback or trade up. 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. I do not have faith in a software update and battery voltage spread test for the latest "fix." GM is very secretive on what the defect or defects are. A battery may test fine today, as it made it into the production vehicle and passed the test then. Though, tomorrow it may fail due to the defect. When it fails, I don't want my family to be anywhere near it. Please hold GM's feet to the fire on this to prevent the possibility of the unsuspecting consumer to get burned.

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.

Re: 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

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.com/news/505346/chevy-bolt-ev-blaze-ashburn/ Port St Lucie, https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/st-lucie-county/2020/10/06/electric-vehicle-thought-have-caught-fire-garage-psl/3635092001/ Vienna, https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-investigates-fire-reports-chevy-bolt-electric-vehicles-73582418 Miami, https://bid.cars/en/lot/0-27990292/2019-Chevrolet-Bolt-1G1FY6S07K4113757 Jacksonville, https://www.chevybolt.org/attachments/jacksonville-bolt-png.31467