GM

Chevrolet Bolt EV resumes production

The recall campaign affected 140,000 Chevrolet Bolt EVs built since 2017 and equipped with LG Energy Solution batteries, as the latter showed a tendency to catch fire. Now, shipments of upgraded batteries have reached such a volume that GM can resume car production, although in the first quarter it managed to ship just over 300 copies.

Until recently, GM was forced to stop production of the new Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV electric vehicles, as all the batteries sourced from LG had to be used to upgrade the cars already sold. The corrected batteries are now being shipped in sufficient quantities to allow production to resume. GM will not retire the Chevrolet Bolt EV family and will even increase the cost of promoting them, and production volumes of the larger EUV version will be doubled. There are still around 6,700 electric vehicles in the dealerships' warehouses awaiting battery replacement, and their conversion will be a priority after servicing the units already sold. Starting in July, GM will begin taking orders for delivery of cars for the 2023 model year. The release of electric vehicles following the announcement of the recall has been suspended since August last year.

The new batteries in these electric vehicle models will have nothing to do with the Ultium platform, which is used by GM to create new models. Cars that have undergone the recall campaign will have an eight-year warranty corresponding to 160,000 kilometers. Also, the new battery will increase the range by 32km, which will also be a nice bonus.

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