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Sean Graham

TweeterTelek

Sean Graham is a tech enthusiast, instructor, manager, and all-around nerd. When he is not jumping out of airplanes or under the ocean, he likes to write, drive, and struggles to contain his excitement about the electrification and autonomation of the future. Find me on Facebook as an admin in the Chevy Bolt EV and EUV Owner’s group, or on Twitter @TweeterTelek.

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Everything we know about the Chevy Bolt EV fires

Bolt Recall

The Chevy Bolt EV has been recalled twice for the risk of battery fire after a dozen fires in a little more than a year. The first recall was in November, with a fix provided in May, which did not fully work. GM then recalled them again in July after another fire on July 1 and a second on July 2 and two on July 25th. On August 16th GM announced that they would start replacing all battery modules in affected Bolts, the same day that a 2020 caught fire as well. This recall has restricted vehicles to about 60% of the battery capacity, and vehicles should not be charged unattended or parked indoors. No fix is currently available. Based on information that is publicly available, here is a list of Chevy Bolt EV fires that we have found.

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GM asks Chevy Bolt EV owners not to charge overnight or park inside after 2 more fires

chevy Bolt Fire

There have been three recent Chevy Bolt EV fires, two within the past 2 weeks. One in May which had the temporary recall, another July 1st which had the final software update in Vermont, and another with the final update in New Jersey in the past week or so. GM has updated their recall page with an acknowledgement of the problem, and is telling owners to not charge overnight at all, and not to park inside.

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Chevy Bolt EV catches on fire after receiving both of GM’s ‘software fixes’

Burnt remains of the latest Chevy Bolt Fire

Another Chevy Bolt fire occurred on the morning of July 1 in Vermont. Similar to the previous one from less than two months ago, this car spontaneously caught fire the morning after charging and while still plugged in. Unlike the previous one however, this one had the final software update that claimed to prevent fires. Join us for an exclusive and in-depth investigation into this, and the history of the Bolt fires.

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Another devastating Chevy Bolt fire just days after fix announced

Chevy Bolt Fire in a garage

There were 6 Chevy Bolt fires last year that led to a recall, and the ink is still wet on the “final fix” announcement. Today news comes of another Chevy Bolt fire that occurred in Ashburn, Virginia on May 1st. We always note that electric vehicle fires are many times rarer than internal combustion engine fires per car even if there is an issue like this.

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Chevy Bolt battery fix announced – is it enough?

As was expected by the end of this month, GM has finally announced its Chevy Bolt battery fix.

The fix is in response to the battery fire recall announced 167 days ago. This is almost two months since any other update. The NHTSA recall notification did mention April 20 as the date for the fix. However, Chevy maintained that it was always aiming for the end of April. Today’s the day.

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Bolt EV recall: Chevy software update to fix battery fire risk in April (Updated)

Translucent Bolt EV showing internal components

It’s been more than three months since Chevrolet announced that more than 68,000 Chevy Bolt EV were recalled due to fire risk in the battery. The temporary fix has been to apply a software update that limits the charge to “90%” (actually 95%). They did provide a brief update via Facebook last week. It appears that a more definitive Bolt recall update is finally here. Read down for the update.

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Cause of LG’s battery fires rumored to be found (updated)

A South Korean news agency is citing anonymous industry sources in the the cause of the atypical battery fires in the Bolt and Kona LG EV batteries.

Update: An official from LG Energy Solution told us…

“The exact cause of the Kona fire has not determined yet. The investigation is still underway with related authorities. However, we can say for sure that the cause of the fire is not a separator problem.”

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Bolt recall update provided by Chevy

Chevy Bolt

Chevy broke their nearly 3-month silence since the Bolt recall to provide a small update via a Facebook group comment.

Ever since the November 13 Bolt EV Battery Recall announcement, eager Chevrolet Bolt owners have been waiting to hear about the progress of the recall. The temporary fix, which owners have been urged to go to the dealership to have applied for free, reduces the charge limit to 90%. (Well, 95% actually, more on that later.) GM and LG Engineers are diligently working to resolve the issue.

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