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Chevy Bolt EV, Bolt EUV Production Down From Nov. 15th To Dec. 6th

Production of the Chevy Bolt EV and Chevy Bolt EUV will be put on hold this month as the automaker focuses its energy on replacement battery packs for customer vehicles.

The automaker’s Lake Orion Assembly plant in Michigan will take three weeks of downtime this month, Automotive News reports, with the plant set to remain offline from November 15th through to December 3rd. Vehicles will once again begin rolling off the assembly line on December 6th.

GM spokesman Dan Flores told the publication the plant will remain open this week and next, producing a limited number of Chevy Bolt EV and Bolt EUV units. It will also help optimize battery output during this time and work on fulfilling requests from dealers related to battery pack replacements.

“Battery module replacements remain the priority. We will continue to adjust Orion’s production schedule moving forward to best support the recall,” Flores told AN.

GM was forced to recall 140,000 examples of the Bolt EV and Bolt EUV after it received multiple reports of the vehicles spontaneously combusting. The problem was traced back to a manufacturing defect in the battery packs, which are manufactured by GM’s battery partner, LG Energy Solution, at facilities in Michigan and Korea. The recall entails replacing the battery packs in nearly all 140,000 vehicles and is expected to cost around $2 billion USD – the majority of which will be covered by LG.

GM is first focusing on 2017-2019 model year Chevy Bolt EV models for battery pack replacements, as it has already developed software for these vehicles that detect faults within the battery module and can determine whether or not it needs to be replaced. This software is not yet available for the updated 2022 Bolt EV or the new Bolt EUV, though it is currently under development.

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Sam loves to write and has a passion for auto racing, karting and performance driving of all types.

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Comments

  1. This is a great idea. Having current customers’ vehicles battery packs replaced before putting them in new vehicles is a great PR Move, but also the right thing to do!

    Reply
    1. It shouldn’t even have ever been discussed in the first place. Like you really have to discuss if you are going to replace the customers battery packs first? Whoever had that idea to discuss this should be fired immediately.

      Reply
      1. That’s easy for you to say, but if you’re one of the 1,000 assembly line workers at Lake Orion, or one of the thousands of supplier employees, you got no job until production of new cars restarts.

        Reply
        1. gm UAW assembly line workers at Orion get paid during shutdown. Supplier workers probably not.
          Final impact on long term Bolt sales TBD.

          Reply
        2. Imagine how many years it will take to complete the recall!
          Another gm screw up.

          Reply
  2. If I understand the unstated, battery modules will only be replaced if the software package detects a fault. Correct?

    The owners of 2020 and 2021 Bolts are not included in the 2017-2019 software and don’t seem to be included in the 2022 software. Is that a typo?

    Reply

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