General Motors has begun buying back certain Chevy Bolt EV units from customers after it was discovered the vehicle’s batteries are prone to catching fire suddenly and without warning.
The automaker issued a recall for certain 2017-2019 model year Chevy Bolt EV vehicles last year after it received numerous reports from owners of the vehicle’s battery pack overheating and catching fire. It then issued a software update as a stop-gap remedy, which would prevent further vehicle fires but also limit the battery capacity of the vehicle to 90 percent. Then, in late April, the automaker announced it had found a permanent solution the problem. Owners were instructed to make an appointment with their dealership, where technicians would use diagnostic tools to test affected vehicles for battery problems and replace the battery packs as necessary. Technicians were also told to install a new “advanced onboard diagnostic software”, which can allegedly detect potential issues with the battery pack before major problems develop.
Chevrolet Bolt EV lithium ion battery
Now, according to InsideEVs, GM has begun buying back certain affected Chevy Bolt EV vehicles from customers as part of the recall program. A reader informed the site that GM had offered to either fix their Chevy Bolt EV or buy it back from them. They chose the buyback program and initiated a buyback request sometime in March. After 67 days, GM asked the customer to turn the vehicle over to a local dealership and mailed them a cheque. Another Bolt EV owner on Reddit also shared their experience with the buyback program, telling fellow owners that she was able to trade her defective Chevy Bolt EV in for a 2022 Chevy Bolt EV “for no money out of pocket.”
A reader told InsideEVs that GM is only offering the buyback program to owners in certain states. If a state has strict lemon laws, GM would offer to repurchase the car, but if they were less stringent, it would deny the buyback request. The publications says the majority of people that have had their buyback requests accepted are from California and Massachusetts.
A total of 50,932 units of the Chevy Bolt EV are affected by the defective battery issue. Involved vehicles feature batteries with defective cells that were manufactured by GM supplier LG Chem in South Korea between May 2016 and May 2019.
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Comments
It’s funny that gm has been telling owners not to park them in garages. Like, how do you charge it then? Maybe they should send owners 100 foot long cords to charge them far away from their homes.
And we can’t charge at night….when should we charge? When we are at work?
Happy to see GM doing the right thing for Bolt customers who have had their value degraded by the few fires, which are far more rare than GM Ice vehicles having fires as records show.
Manufacturing batteries is very sensitive, if there is even the smallest defect in a cell, its a serious safety hazard. Tesla has had their share of fires too, especially in earlier Model S, with the 85 kWh battery pack. I would not charge one of those on my garage if it the only car to choose from.
i thought the same until i read : “If a state has strict lemon laws, GM would offer to repurchase the car, but if they were less stringent, it would deny the buyback request.”
GM is a business, they have to push back on anything certain amount of they would have to buy them all back and the value would be zero.
GM bought a truck back from me in 1996, it was a hassle, and I had to stay on them, but they eventually did the right thing.
i guess doing the right thing depends on where you live. i’d be pissed off being treated like a second class customer.
This happens on all cars, not just EVs. They’re trying to avoid the title brand once the consumer demands a lemon law buyback. This preserves the resale value, since they’ll fix up and resell the vehicles either way.
All cars may catch fire occasionally, but not when they are turned off sitting in the garage… That’s a special kind of malfunction. Brought to you by lowercase gm.
Have you driven a Ford lately?
Ford had like 3 fires out of 370k units, and they actually found a fix. The bolt has had 3 fires in about 50k units. The odds aren’t in the Bolts favor. Yeah, that’s a no from me dawg.
Nope. Ford SCDS. Around 100 fires of vehicles just sitting there, over 10 years worth of models.
Not to mention the latest batch of Hyundai/Kia ABS recalls.
Thank you Steve. Looks like Generous Motors is doing the right action only in California and Massachusetts where they have strict “lemon Laws” to protect the consumer. What do the other 2016-2019 Bolt owners do if they would prefer the buy-back option?????? It seems like GM is setting themselves up for legal action!
With the current mantra EV EV EV, and the added hysteria of NOW because of the supposed draconian effects of climate change, this topic is not going to be treated fairly or reported accurately by any government, media outlet or corporation.
Can you imagine how GM would have been excoriated (like was done over many other recalls in the past) in the press if they refused to make good on a safety issue with this potential? They got loads of bad press and lawsuits when the parts division changed the ignition switch without a new part number causing the steering wheel to lock under certain rare circumstances about 10 years ago.
No thanks, I am not going to be an early adopter on this one.
It’s unfortunate that the press really only choose to portray stories that fit their political narrative. News should be a stepping of point for constructive dialogue. Not how it is currently, with any free thought being passed off as a “conspiracy.” The U.S. is a little more broken than normal right now.
New gm stepping up. Snowflakes still complaining.
lowercase gm is stepping up here? In what way? They aren’t buying back all of them in a comprehensive way… They aren’t replacing the entire battery pack… They aren’t really doing anything but the bare minimum to stop from being sued lol… Lowercase gm is pathetic.
Funny how you used the term “New gm”. The government owns the majority of the stock in this “New gm”. You would think they (government) would really want to get this recall fixed as soon as possible to uphold the reputation of their investment. Instead we will most likely still be waiting next year for our battery replacement while still not being able to use our garage to park and charge our Bolts.
Disimes64,
The government doesn’t own the majority of the stock in gm. They sold it some years ago. They lost $11 billion in taxpayer money when they unloaded it. The taxpayers are still indebted to pay off the money lost saving gm, as it was added to our national debt, but the government is no longer a shareholder.
They may have sol.d off their shares however they purchased said shares with tax payer dollars and tax payers are still on the hook for the lost moneys so I stand by my previous statement.
According to my online chat with GM, whether or not you are charging or just charged, you should NOT park inside a parking facility within 50 feet of another car, but you may park on the open roof level. However, it’s OKAY to park in and burn down your own garage and home, as long as you are not charging or have not just charged. As soon as I pointed how ridiculously contradictory that is, they took my information and opened a case for me for buyback or MSRP swap on an ICE vehicle. We’ll see what happens, but I’m not holding my breath…until my home is engulfed in smoke.
If the car caught fire, that’s really bad. If it was in your garage at the time, now that is a real disaster. I really love my home and it’s contents. A lifetime of work got me there.No EV’s for me.
This is why every state should have tough lemon laws. They force manufacturers to do the right thing when they make mistakes. These laws came into existence because manufacturers did NOT do the right thing in many cases.
If your state has strong “lemon laws” then the end consumer may stand a chance. Apparently if your state does not, then you will probably be denied on a buy-back claim. If there are so few problems with the 2016-2019 Bolts then Generous Motors should buy-back all the defectives or give the owner a 2022 option as a replacement vehicle. This is the cost of doing business in a new area of technology. Perhaps Farley at Ford is correct in building the batteries right here in the USA, maybe even Detroit!
@Rick said: “This is why every state should have tough lemon laws. ”
Not all states protect their citizens. The laws get passed by the folks they elect.
Look at Texas: they failed their citizens, electricity failed due to their choices, people died. And you would think they would have stormed that Capitol and demanded change. Not so much.
Some try to pass consumer protection laws, and get branded as socialists.
You think they will pass strong lemon laws in certain states? No way.
I saw that Ohio had a better rated lemon law than California (The Center for Auto Safety). So why not Ohio?
1.New Jersey–2 Washington –3.Rhode Island –4.Hawaii — 5. Ohio
I contacted GM via chat today and explained I don’t want to park 50 farther from the store than the last car in the lot. The reply was that it applied only to parking inside a parking structure and I should park on the open top level. How about my garage? The reply was that it applied only to charging and immediately thereafter. So, it’s not okay to park inside a parking structure EVER, but it IS okay to park inside my own garage except during and immediately following charging??? After I pointed out the contradiction and the car is not fit for use, I was asked for my VIN, whether new or used and the dealer. They are supposed to contact me with a week or two. As Yogi Berra said, “it’s tough to make predictions…especially about the future,” but I’ve got to think that GM is going to have to buy back or make MSRP swaps on ICE vehicles to any Bolt owner who demands it.