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In October, news broke that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had opened an investigation into the Chevrolet Bolt EV due to potential battery fires while charging. On Friday, Chevrolet announced a recall that will affect all 2017 and 2018 model Bolt electric vehicles, as well as some MY2019 electric vehicles.
The problem concerns battery packs containing cells manufactured at the LG Chem plant in Ochang, Korea. Chevrolet says that, in partnership with NHTSA, it has confirmed a total of five Bolt EV fires caused by this problem, which occurred while charging the car’s full capacity batteries.
Affected owners should contact their local Chevrolet dealer to schedule the software fix, which will be available by the end of the week. (You can check NHTSA’s database to see if your vehicle identification number is included.) The update will prevent the battery from charging more than 90 percent, and Chevrolet says it will have a permanent fix that restores the battery’s ability to use the 100 percent of its state of charge as soon as possible after January 1, 2021.
Meanwhile, Chevrolet is asking owners of affected cars to change their charging settings to avoid any possibility of fires before they are repaired.
For owners of EV Bolt MY2017 and MY2018, this means enabling Hilltop Reserve mode, which tells the battery to leave 10% overcharging while charging. For owners of interested MY2019 Bolt electric vehicles, which have slightly different settings, Chevrolet claims to enable Target Charge mode, which should be set to 90%. (There are video instructions available on Chevrolet’s Bolt EV recall page.) The company says that if you don’t feel confident about changing the setting yourself, you shouldn’t park your Bolt EV in a garage or under a canopy for car until the car was patched.
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