The Chevy Bolt EV and Bolt EUV class action lawsuit related to battery concerns will be allowed to proceed in court, after being consolidated from eight individual class action lawsuits.
According to a new report by Car Complaints, the lawsuit alleges that 2017-2022 Chevy Bolt EV and 2022 Bolt EUV vehicles are equipped with defective lithium-ion batteries and defective battery management systems.
The lawsuit alleges that the battery pack in the Chevy Bolts catches fire if a single battery cell has a torn anode as well as a folded separator. As a stop-gap, GM released a software update to prevent the affected Chevy Bolt EV and EUV models from charging to full capacity. GM also advised owners to charge and park their vehicles outside and away from things that could catch fire, as well as warned them not to deplete the battery below certain charge levels.
However, the lawsuit argues that these measures mean that customers aren’t getting the full value of the vehicle they paid for. Chevy Bolt EV and EUV models with this update have a real-world range of 163 miles, which is only 63 percent of the full mileage advertised by GM. Plaintiffs have also cited anxiety and a lack of sleep over fire concerns, stating that they wouldn’t have leased the vehicle to begin with if they were aware of the battery issues.
GM has been hit by multiple class action lawsuits related to Chevy Bolt EV and EUV battery issues for the past two years, including the following:
- Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith, which accused GM of violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, along with fraudulent concealment/fraud by omission.
- Keller Rohrback L.L.P., Markovits, and Stock & DeMarco, LLC, which accused GM of concealing various defects with the 60 kWh lithium-ion battery pack found in the electric vehicles, which can allegedly cause the battery pack to overheat when the vehicle is nearly or fully charged.
- Powell Miller, who represented 30 plaintiffs, said “(GM and LG) imposed limitations on consumers’ use of their Bolts, those limitations dramatically reduced the value and usefulness of the Bolt, the resale value, restriction of driving range and when and where they can charge their vehicles – even where they can park them.”
- A California class action lawsuit, where the plaintiff was forced to make “unforeseen accommodations and take precautions that interfere,” with their normal expected use of the vehicle.
- A Canadian lawsuit, where the plaintiff, who owns both a 2017 and a 2018 Chevy Bolt EV, claims GM has been aware of potential defects with the Chevy Bolt EV’s battery pack “since at least 2018,” and knowingly marketed and sold affected vehicles anyways.
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Comments
And with all the automobile companies having problems they will never make it to “No ICE vehicles”. Now we have EV fires from the flooding for the hurricane in Florida. Tomg
I’ll stick with my ICE vehicles!
No one cares what you do. Go away.
When mistakes are made, GM does everything in their power to correct them quickly and properly. It is bound to happen with new technology. These class action lawsuits are frivolous and nothing but lawyers encouraging people to earn a quick dollar. Look at their stated logic and claims. Shame on them. Sad.
Yo mismo ordene uno y según que me lo entregan en dic pero con eso que solo hace 163 millas y lo estoy comprando por 220 millas debo revisar bien eso .
Sarcasm?
No one will win except lawyers.
When mistakes are made, GM does everything in the power to sweep them under the rug and dispense an army of lawyers instead of fixing the design issues.
Fixed your statement Bill K.
Call your local GM dealer and ask them if they have a replacement battery for the $40,000 bolt we bought in 2021. They will tell you “no we don’t at this time have any idea when a fix will be ready for your $40,000 Bolt”. Then ask them if the Bolts that are now sitting on showroom floors have the new battery that doesn’t catch on fire. The answer will be “yes, they do”. Then follow up again with the question of why they don’t fix the broken ones before making the new ones. Your local GM dealer will say “I don’t know”. I have a car that is 20% less of a vehicle than what I paid for. Did I get 20% back on the $40,000? NO. And before you say “well how far have you driven it?” My 2021 Bolt has just over 4,000 miles. Would you pay an employee 100% if their salary if they did 80% of their job? $40,000 of my money is a lot of money. And yet I’m being frivolous? You obviously are with UAW. Or you have lost your mind.
Same here. I can’t fill further than 124 miles and living in the west that, with the requirement not to drive it much under 70 miles, gets me to the top of a mountain and not back down.
I am usually not one to support lawsuits, however there is merit in this particular case. GM has an obligation to deliver the utility they advertised. If they advertise 258 miles of range, there is a reasonable expectation by owners that their vehicle will provide something reasonably close to that (even taking in to consideration reasonable adjustments for driving habits, weather, etc.) If GM’s final remedy for battery issues is to limit the usefulness of the vehicle to only 63% of the advertised range, then they owe consumers a reasonable accommodation/adjustment to account for that reduction. It is not unreasonable to believe that if the vehicle had only had a range of 168 miles when new, that customers would have not leased/purchased.
Additionally, there are product liability issues here. Not only has the range of the vehicle been reduced, but now the ability to safely charge the vehicle has questioned. There is always some inherent risk when dealing with any vehicle regardless of of it is ICE or EV. However when the manufacturer specifically instructs you to keep the vehicle outside and away from other flammable objects it introduces an unreasonable amount of anxiety in the minds of consumers. Again, customers would probably not have purchased/leased had this been mentioned to them prior.
The only true remedies here are to either buy these vehicles back, engineer and roll out a final fix that restores function to what was advertised and significantly reduces fire risk to something reasonable and comparable to a traditional ICE vehicle, or if no fix can be developed financially compensate customers with an amount reflecting the reduction in product use.
I repurchased my Bolt on both reasons. Burn and travel restrictions. When I did repurchase it, I had to pay $8350.00 because of mileage and depreciation. 10234 miles. With lawsuit I will expect a refund.
Archee do you even or have ever owned a Bolt? I’m not so sure about the reduced value of a used Bolt, the Bolts with the new batteries are going for a real good price currently.
I bought a new 2019 Bolt that I drove through 3 North Eastern Ohio winters and did not experience one issue. Yes, it was inconvenient to park the car outside in the snow for a while. Gm wanted my 2019 and offered me one of the 2022 November built Bolts. I accepted it but unfortunately the 2022 had computer and steering wheel issues. I complained through the proper channels and procedures and now I have a 2023 Bolt that is loaded. I will not participate in any lawsuit, it took a while but gm took care of my problems. However, to be fair about it, I still don’t park the new Bolt inside of my garage…….
GM is replacing the batteries.
GM is currently produced batteries without the defect. They are installing them in new production vehicles. They have no information on when they will get around to replacing defective units. Call your local dealer.
local dealers update the software and tell you they will let you know when the new battery has been ordered. ITS BEEN OVER A YEAR! Is there no time limit for them to fix the defect?
BTW – local dealers are less than useful on this issue.
I was told I MIGHT get a new battery at the end of 2023 for my 2021 Bolt.
It took 16 months from the time I was notified of the defect. I never called the dealer once about this issue. I actually wish they hadn’t called about battery replacement, I was happy to wait for the replacement battery, knowing that I would receive a new warranty I would have liked to put more miles on the original. However my battery was replaced in the winter (Wisconsin) and I’m not seeing the range on the new battery that I had on the original. Waiting for the Spring warm up to see if things get back to normal on range before I bother the dealer with this issue.
As long as you have the range to meet your daily needs and the update that allows you to charge and park inside what’s the rush?
I was in the same boat. I couldn’t stand the anxiety of the battery burning down the car in my driveway, which would probably catch my house on fire also. So, i had gm buy the car back and it had only 5300 miles. They wouldn’t repurchase the total amount that I owed, so I had to borrow $8400 to as they for mileage and depreciation. I’ve requested that amount back but doubt I will get it.
I have 2019 Bolt and Chevy replaced the battery pack with a new non-catchy fire one. And I now have about 20 miles of extra range compared to the original 240. Guestimated from power used versus charge level and possible miles left at 25% charge.
So I guess I don’t understand this law suit? Chevy replaced the defective packs with new and better ones. The only 2 issues I’ve ever had with my Bolt after 3 years is sometimes the windshield wipers don’t drop all the way down when turned off, like 2-3 inches from off position, not a big deal. And the charge port lockout got stuck and I couldn’t plug in till I disconnected the battery and reset the system. That one was a little irritating but all in all this has been a great commuter and around town car!
I’m glad you got your battery replaced. I didn’t, My lease ends in a week and they said last week “good news, we have a replacement for your battery, ask for it and we’ll order it. It will arrive in 3-4 weeks and we’ll put it in” I pointed out this is after my lease expires, so worthless to me, to which the agent replied “you can lease it for an additional month”. That’s so ridiculously sh1tty it sounds like a joke.
Battery Technology is not here yet !
As A EV Tec in Industrial vehicles using lead acid technology for the last 25 years I see no future in lithium battery powered vehicles.
The mechanics for Ev is excellent compared to IC vehicles but the battery technology can’t compete.
A ground breaking breakthrough is needed for Battery Technology.
Hurricane Ian has created more issues questioning the viability of lithium powered vehicles and boats. Water, especially salt water tends to cause the lithium batteries to ignite or in some cases explode. Extinguishing these fires is problematic, is some cases its take numerous attempts to extinguish the fires.
One effective means to extinguish lithium battery fires is to bury the vehicle before it reignites or causes an explosion. The car insurance carriers are not going to pleased!
In the path of Hurricane Ian fire departments are reporting fires & explosions and are having difficulties extinguishing the fires caused by these lithium batteries.
Lithium powered vehicles may quickly draw the attention of the insurance industry. The federal government will probably subsidize not only the purchase of EV vehicles but subsidize the cost of the insurance.
And we the taxpayers are doing this because of climate change?
The carbon footprint of a Chevy Bolt that has been recalled numerous times, piles of defective lithium batteries that cannot be recycled are a problem for EV dealers. The expanding carbon footprint of an EV becomes a real problem.
EV powered lithium vehicles don’t make sense. Solid state batteries and/or hybrids … let’s loose this pipe dream of lithium powered vehicles and boats. This might be why Bill Gates and many others are shorting Tesla stock?
Lithion Recycling Inc.
The firm has one of the highest recycling capacities in the world, an annual processing capacity of 7,500 metric tonnes. In simpler terms, this is equivalent to 20,000 electric vehicles.
Li-Cycle Corp. (Canada)
Duesenfeld GmbH (Germany)
Fortum (Finland)
Envirostream (Australia)
Do you need more? Recycling is well in hand.
Currently it costs 3 times more to recycle the materials from depleted batteries than to mine for more materials. There is not as much push to recycle the raw materials as you might think. Most of the “recycling” is actually repurposing. But once they are completely depleted then what? Dig a big hole and throw millions of batteries into the pit? I respectively disagree with you. Any chance you are a member of the UAW or possibly have investments in the before mentioned industry?
Well, if so much so, why have I been waiting for my Chevy Bolt EUV HERE in Canada for more than 5 months?
You will be waiting longer than that.
Because you are in Canada possibly. My neighbor bought one in New Boston Texas within a week.
hi guys my Chevy bolt never arrived in dic as they said we are already here in Canada for 8 months, and checking here. It is worth almost 10,000 extra compared to the US, do you have any idea why it is like that?
Still have not had my battery replaced on my 2020, I’m expected to live with these constraints for another two years? They had these lawsuits coming.
2021 bolt here. Living on the danger line 100% charge = 173 miles in a 50 deg garage. Out side in 28 Deg full charge 158 miles. I have a 65 Corvair, a 63 Nova, a 48 ford which is basically a shell on a chevy so I’m an old chevy guy. This has made sure I will NEVER buy another new chevy. Dealers are left holding the bag, have no idea of if or when they will get replacement batteries, and not allowed to resale Bolts they get from tread in so they tell me yet, sell new versions with no feeling of corporate shame. Chevy trust is dead. Mike Drop.
I was waiting for mine for 10 months until I canceled my order and I took advantage of Tesla’s discounts and bought the model 3, recommended
I will never buy another Chevy product, I am also going on to every platform I can find to describe the treatment I have received as a Bolt owner. I was promised batteries for 2 years, (I still have my original letter from Chevy, promising, in writing, to replace my batteries), and now am being told I get nothing! The car is not useful for the trips I need to make with the reduced range, and I never would have purchased it with these limitations. I will also be joining a lawsuit. This is no way to treat loyal customers, GM obviously does not care about our business and they will never get any more of ours.
Could you elaborate, why is GM refusing to replace your battery? Did you get the software update limiting your charging?
GM is now saying the software update is the mitigation for the issue, and I am no longer on the list for battery replacement. (This information relayed to me when I asked the dealer for the sixth or seventh time when my batteries would be available.)
Is this info from your dealer or have you contacted GM directly? The dealer may have given you a flippant answer after six or seven times calling about your battery. If they did a software update limiting your charge to 80% and GM is now telling you that is the fix I’d say you have a good case and you should get an attorney.
When I was first notified of the potential battery failure and all the restrictions on where it could be parked and how to charge it, I went in to get the software update as soon as it was available ( I wanted to park in the garage during Wisconsin winter). I never contacted the dealer about the battery replacement and 14 months later I was notified that they had a battery for me. There are still other owners who have not had their batteries replaced yet according to the Bolt forum, and it seemed like they were doing the older cars first (mine is a 2020), but I would think they have to be getting near the end of the list.
Good Luck
Yes, I did get the 80% reduction as soon as it was available also, now there has been a second software update which is supposed to include increased diagnostics, and is supposedly the final mitigation. However your comment gives me hope, I will contact GM directly and see if their original promise of new batteries might be honored. If not I will proceed with legal action.
I purchased a 2020 chevy bolt from McCutchen (Ohio)? Chevrolet dealer in May 2024. I am sitting here with the Legal Notice class action law suit flyer. To respond to the flyer it requires a “PHD” in computers. Is there a better methodical way?