Looks like the Chevy Bolt battery fire issue isn’t over, and last year was already a bad one for the Bolt: Everything from General Motors advising owners not to park the vehicles in garages or near other vehicles to class action suits turned many off of what was supposed to be a game-changing EV for GM. A production pause that was just recently restarted didn’t help matters. While it looks like things may have settled down, that’s not the case in the Great White North. GM Authority reports that a Canadian Bolt owner has filed suit against GM alleging the company knew about the Bolts battery defects.
The case was filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia by a Canadian owner who has not one, but two Bolts: one 2017 and one 2018. The owner alleges that GM misled customers through false advertising which led to customers driving “dangerous vehicles.” It also alleges that Bolt batteries cant be charged to capacity and become dangerous below 30 percent. From CarComplaints.com:
In addition to the inability to discharge the batteries below 30%, Chevy Bolt owners have been told to charge the batteries to 90% capacity. The plaintiff alleges Bolt customers didn’t receive the electric cars they were promised considering the Bolts have only 60% of the advertised range.
Think that’s bad? It gets worse. A software update rolled out by GM in November 2021 was supposed to help with the issue by “limiting its capacity to 90 percent and reducing the chances of it suddenly catching fire.” Except this was a stopgap measure. The suit alleges that GM essentially twiddled its thumbs by releasing the update. Bolts needed full battery replacements, not a pointless update. The Bolt’s battery issues have since been traced to “a torn anode tab and a folded separator,” according to GM Authority.
The suit has been filed on behalf of any Canadian customer who brought a 2017-2022 Chevy Bolt or Bolt EUV.