Chevrolet
- General Motors announced a voluntary recall for 50,932 select Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles.
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the safest place to park cars until repair is “outside and away from homes.”
- NHTSA confirmed five Chevrolet Bolt vehicle fires that caused two injuries and ignited a home.
- GM CEO Mary Barra plans to invest $20 billion on electric and autonomous vehicles by 2025.
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Chevrolet is instructing owners of 2017-2019 model-year Bolt electric vehicles to park away from their homes due to risk of catching fire.
Chevrolet and owner General Motors announced a voluntary recall for select Bolt vehicles on Friday. Cars made with high voltage batteries produced at LG Chem, a Korean facility, may pose a risk of fire when charged to full or close to full capacity, Chevrolet said in a release.
The recall impacts 50,932 Chevrolet Bolt vehicles, per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The cars have potential to smoke and ignite internally, which may spread to the rest of the car and nearby structure if parked in a garage. Chevrolet detailed the software update needed in order to ensure vehicle safety.
“If you are unable to successfully make these changes, or do not feel comfortable making these changes, we ask you to not park your car in your garage or carport until after you have visited your dealer,” Chevrolet said in the release.
The NHTSA said that “until these recalled vehicles have been repaired, the safest place to park them is outside and away from homes.”
NHTSA confirmed five Chevrolet Bolt vehicle fires that caused two injuries and ignited a home. Since cars can catch fire even when turned off and disconnected from a charging unit.
GM CEO Mary Barra plans to invest $20 billion on electric and autonomous vehicles by 2025 to compete with Tesla's dominance in the electric vehicle market. GM launched the electric Chevrolet Bolt in 2016, targeting the mass-market.
Citing the success of the Chevrolet Bolt, Barra announced in 2018 the company increased production by 20% and would bring battery manufacturing to the US. The automaker said it intends to launch 22 new electrified vehicles by 2023 and invest $2 billion to build electric vehicles at its Spring Hill, Tennessee plant.
"These investments underscore the success of our vehicles today, and our vision of an all-electric future," GM CEO Mary Barra said in October.