GM recalls every Chevy Bolt ever made due to a dangerous battery defect

[PhotonWrangler]

Physical manufacturing defects have been found in some Chevy Bolt batteries that pose a serious fire risk. At least one house burned down because of this. They recalled a batch of these cars in July but now that the problem is more widespread than a single LG battery plant, they're recalling 100% of them.

 

[idleprocess]

That'll put a dent in the financials. A quick search suggests they sold <80,000 units through the 2020 model year. Not a big stretch to assume close to another 20k units of 2021 MY which is apt to be about concluding.

 

[Kestrel]

I read that GM is going to go after LG on this charge; $0.8B + $1.2B now with the revised recall.

 

[fuyume]

This, I suspect, is just going to be "the cost of doing business" in cars filled with huge numbers of tiny lithium-ion cells. They have surprisingly high failure rates, and require intensive monitoring. The more cells you pack in, the larger the likelihood of a catastrophic failure.

The automobile companies are going about EVs the wrong way. We don't need EVs with 300+ miles ranges. What we need is to rebuild our environment so that people can live comfortably without cars.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I read that GM is going to go after LG on this charge; $0.8B + $1.2B now with the revised recall.

Understandably so. It looks like there were two separate quality control failures on LG's part if the story is to be believed.

 

[idleprocess]

What we need is to rebuild our environment so that people can live comfortably without cars.

The work of a generation to perform such tremendous restructuring, assuming that overwhelming consensus is magicked into existence. In the meantime, the structure of most of North America - and not inconsiderable swaths of the rest of the world - demands passenger automobiles like it or not.