US investigates fire reports in Chevy Bolt electric vehicles

ajmartineau

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I did not get the recall notice, but I have a 2020.
This might be a good time to look at a used Bolt. The prices are falling and I have a teenager that would like their own car.
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malba2366

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This is worrisome. It seems like there is a fire issue in a bunch of vehicles that use LG batteries. The Ford Kuga, Chevy Bolt, and BMW X5 45e are all currently under some sort of recall for fire risk
 

Regularmache

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Still probably less of an instant Emergency like a petrol powered car and explosions. At least with the BEV you get a slow cook, rather than explosive reaction and thus very little time to extract passengers, ie; limousine explosion, etc. Both obviously are bad, but I'd rather the BEV fire. In terms of survivability.
 

malba2366

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Still probably less of an instant Emergency like a petrol powered car and explosions. At least with the BEV you get a slow cook, rather than explosive reaction and thus very little time to extract passengers, ie; limousine explosion, etc. Both obviously are bad, but I'd rather the BEV fire. In terms of survivability.
It is a bigger issue with EVs because they can start a fire when not in use (ie. in your garage when you are at home sleeping and no one is aware). I have never heard of a gasoline car igniting spontaneously when it is not being driven.
 


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This is something of an issue because the cells for the MME are being made at the same factory as that which produced the cells for the Bolts which are at issue. (The cells for the more recent Bolts were produced in MI not Korea).

It is a bigger issue with EVs because they can start a fire when not in use (ie. in your garage when you are at home sleeping and no one is aware). I have never heard of a gasoline car igniting spontaneously when it is not being driven.
How can you forget the Ferrari's that burst into flames when parked? LOL
 

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QUOTE=JamieGeek, post: 58067, member: 464
Yup: I just got an e-mail from GM about my Bolt.

I got the same e-mail today. Interestingly I had always left the default setting of "Hill Top Reserve" on which limited the charging to the 87-88% level. I still managed to get close to the 239 mile range. Still, I will call my dealer on the 17th and get the software update to limit the charging to 90%. I just wonder what it will do to the max with "Hill Top Reserve" set to ON
 

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This is worrisome. It seems like there is a fire issue in a bunch of vehicles that use LG batteries. The Ford Kuga, Chevy Bolt, and BMW X5 45e are all currently under some sort of recall for fire risk
I'm pretty sure that the Kuga batteries are not LG chem, but I'm not positive.

In general I do agree with the concern that maybe there is an endemic issue with the rapid mass production of Li-Ion batteries.
 

JamieGeek

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Was a bit surprised to get a call from my Chevy dealer: Tomorrow I bring the Bolt in for the interim fix (reduce the charge % to 90%).
 

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Was a bit surprised to get a call from my Chevy dealer: Tomorrow I bring the Bolt in for the interim fix (reduce the charge % to 90%).
Just got the Bolt reflashed. Took them an hour to do; not sure why. They did run it through their quickie wash so that took all of 5 minutes...

Looks like it didn't reset much in the car and my range remaining didn't appear to drop (its sitting at about 1/2 a "tank" right now).
 

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I remember when the Model S came out. Incidents of Tesla's catching on fire in crashes also caught the news cycle. Somewhere it was mentioned that the incident of fires in EV's relative to number on the road was actually lower than ICE. The events tended to get more coverage due to them being new. The "challenge' with an EV fire is the temperature of a runaway Li fire and the time it takes to burn out. Preparedness for first responders to deal with it can be an issue.

Three reports in three years of availability. I don't trust my Bolt any less because of this report.
Had the final resolution for the Bolt recall applied today. As part of the resolution they ran diagnostics on every cell in the battery. Four years, 46,000 miles and every cell tested within normal specification, as expected. No cell degradation or problems identified. Love my Mach E, but still don't regret anything about the Bolt purchase either.
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