The Electric Flash Analysis: GM Bolt Owners Violate Fire Safety Rules Amid Battery Recall
In the three weeks since General Motors issued a second recall of Chevy Bolts whose batteries may be in danger of catching fire, new data show that a significant minority of Bolt owners didn’t follow the company’s electric-charging guidelines for the vehicles, which are aimed at preventing such fires. The data underscore how EV makers cannot reasonably expect to change the behavior of their customers midstream, and explain at least in part why GM on Tuesday made the decision to replace the battery modules of all 69,000 vehicles after earlier wavering on the matter.
Data that were first shared with The Electric by Recurrent, an EV battery monitoring app, showed that 25% of Bolt owners charged their EV battery to 100% of capacity—well past the 90% maximum that GM recommended in order to avoid fire risk—in the past three weeks. And 35% of owners let their battery fall below 30% of capacity, which GM said also increases the risk of fire. It’s unclear how many of the 1,000 Bolt owners tracked by Recurrent stopped parking their Bolts inside a garage or parking lot, as GM also recommended in an online alert for some 69,000 Bolt owners in late July, informing them of the recall. (Some recent Bolt battery fires occurred when the vehicles were parked.)
The Tuesday decision by GM seems to reflect a more decisive approach after months in which the company appeared to dither in response to Bolt fires. As I wrote last month, GM for months could not seem to decide whether it would replace battery modules, and if it did, whether it would do so for the entire range of 2017 to 2019 model years with an identified battery defect. In a statement yesterday, spokesman Kevin Kelly said, “If we determine a different remedy after additional investigation then we will adjust, but right now the plan is to replace all modules.”
However, owners of the Bolts that GM believes are most vulnerable to fire risk won’t be able to make appointments to replace their batteries until Monday of next week, a sign that, even if GM is moving faster, it has yet to see urgency around the issue.
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About Steve LeVine
Steve LeVine is editor of The Electric. Previously, he worked at Axios, Quartz and Medium, and before that The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He is the author of The Powerhouse: America, China and the Great Battery War, and is on Twitter @stevelevine