2018 CHEVROLET BOLT EV Complaints

GM is aware of a defect that may cause my vehicle to catch fire. They have advised me to park outside so in case it catches fire, the fire is less likely to injure or kill anyone. But, uh, I would like my vehicle to not catch fire actually.

My vehicle is being affected by 2 recalls for a battery that might melt or burn. The vehicle is also experiencing issues with the infotainment system that is malfunctioning/restarting/shutting down while driving. This is extremely distracting and dangerous and causes the vehicle speed area to fade out as the system restarts. Our family is severely limited by the charge limit, minimum miles, or by having to park it outside and not charge it overnight. We live in an fire brush area and are very stressed about having the vehicle potentially catch on fire and burn down our neighborhood. I tried to trade in the vehicle so that we could move on and they won't accept the car with an open warranty recall. The carfax information literally states that the remedy is NOT YET AVAILABLE. How can we move on and what do we do with our original investment of over $48k? I have taken the vehicle into the dealership to have the software update installed twice and still don't know if it has been done or whether the cars battery has been tested and the numbers are within the acceptable parameters. The infotainment system still does not work properly and I am worried that the vehicle is malfunctioning. My wife has now issued the ultimate - I cannot park the car or charge the car at our home. She is stressed beyond belief and I will have to leave the car at the local dealership to charge it and wait for whatever remedy they come up with whenever it might happen.

We own a 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV which has once again been recalled due to battery fires. We are not limited to how we charge our vehicle, where to hark and limited to 60% of the mileage range that we paid for while we wait to see if GM can fix this issue. Replacing individual cells in a dirty auto dealers show in a battery that was built in a clean room does not seem like a good idea. I'm not comfortable that GM can be successful identifying whether or not my battery is defective. This is a serious safety issue. My family, our home, people and property where I drive and park are all at risk. I no longer feel comfortable driving this car. The restrictions on charging are onerous. We are on Time of Use for our electricity so that we can charge at night when it is cheaper. Now we are told we have to charge during peak hours at triple the cost. We can't park in the garage so the vehicle is sun damaged and the battery is overheated while sitting all day in the hot SoCal sun. We also are at high risk for damage to the wiring from rats now. We already have an issue with the rats eating the wires in our RV. GM must be forced to replace the entire battery pack in every vehicle affected by this recall. They must provide loaner vehicles or details on reimbursement for rental cars.

The incident is that my car just had a second recall about the exact same problem about the battery and to keep my car to erupt on fire I won't be able to use it as intended. I purchased this car because of its range and now I can't get that range if I can only charge it up to 90% and cannot let go below 30%. That is unacceptable.

The remedy proposed by GM for the risk of catastrophic fire is inadequate. I live in an area with frequent hail storms and leaving the car outside at night would subject it to severe damage. More importantly, I live in a high-wildfire-risk area with almost daily high winds (30-50 mph) especially at night and morning. Even if the car were parked outside, it is likely to ignite the foliage and create an uncontrollable wildfire that would consume this entire valley with approximately 1500 homes with an average value of over $1.5 million dollars. That works out to over $2 billion in structural risk from a fire from this single vehicle. Two days ago, my Bolt starting honking its horn at 9pm - one of the fire warnings programmed by Chevy. Although it proved to be a false alarm of unknown cause, the fire department responded with two engines. The responding fire captain told me that due to the wildfire risk, the only safe place to park the car would be a Safeway parking lot 4.5 miles away. That makes the car unusable. The proposed remedy could take more than a year to implement, especially since GM has known about this risk for more than a year and has made no contingency plans to replace defective batteries in that time. I have contacted GM twice explaining the extraordinary risk that this defect causes to my community and asked for a buyback. So far, other than asking for a copy of the title, purchase order and odometer reading, I've had no response.

“I own a 2018 Chevrolet Bolt which is part of the recall announced 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 June. 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 today that they will again be using software to identify defective cells in our batteries and only the ones that are determined 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. I’m extremely disappointed by the fact that GM continues to cut corners in an effort to save money, despite such a serious safety issue that can affect so many. Myself, my livelihood, my family and even people I park next to while out in public are at risk. GM must be forced to replace the entire battery pack in every vehicle affected by this recall, provide MRSP swaps or buybacks to those impacted by this significant issue. 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 while they clean up their mess.”

Vehicle is useless to me due to the new range restrictions. My medical provider is a little over 100 miles away, and I cannot make the round trip with the reduced range, thus I cannot get my prescription medications.

I own a 2018 Chevy Bolt and GM has issues 3 different recalls on the battery due to risk of combustion. First was a software fix to reduced charge capacity, second was a supposed to be a permanent fix to resolve the issue, and finally GM has issues a 3rd recall where they state they will replace failing modules. With each recall the requirements on the owner to keep the battery from combusting have become more and more strict. Effectively, I only have about 140 miles of battery charge out of 230 because they suggest not charging past 90% and not going below 70 miles remaining. Also I cannot charge my car indoors OR unattended. At this point I feel unsafe having this car near my home or family because of risk of combustion.

The safety of myself and my family and my house is put at risk from the second recall related to the battery. Also the range of the car during the recall is about half of what was the advertised range when I purchased the vehicle. Come winter, this may leave me stranded depending on the weather.

The contact owns a 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV. The contact stated that when the driver (his wife) drove at 45mph a vehicle failed to yield the right of way and made a left turn. The driver was unable to stop and crashed into the vehicle's front passenger side and bumper. The contact stated that the driver's air bag and the front passenger air bag failed to deploy causing the driver injuries to the neck, shoulder, sides, right leg, and back. The front passenger was a ten-year-old child who received injuries to the right shoulder. The vehicle was towed to an impound lot. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. A police report was filed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 22,000.