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Chevrolet Bolt EV Early Units Recalled due to Faulty Batteries

Being a car manufacturer with a bit of history, General Motors is no stranger to recalls, but this is the first one it has ever issued for battery-powered electric vehicles.
Chevrolet Bolt 1 photo
Photo: Chevrolet
Well, the company did build the EV-1 in the late-nineties, a car that a lot of people believe could have brought the electric revolutions years earlier, and then quickly made all the existing units disappear in the scrapper, but that doesn't technically count as a recall. It was more of a total recall.

Now, General Motors is trying to amend its sins by offering arguably the best EV out there that doesn't wear a Tesla badge, and by what we hear about Nissan's second-gen LEAF, the Bolt might retain that title over the coming years as well. However, GM appears to be in no hurry to offer the battery-powered hatchback to as many people as possible since it only delivered around 10,000 units in just under a year.

Meanwhile, the European version of the Bolt sold under the Opel brand and the Ampera-e name is harder to find than a pink unicorn, and it's bound to remain that way until GM manages to quench the demand on US soil. Which, given the unquestionable qualities of the car, might take some time.

But it all might turn out to be a blessing in disguise for General Motors after a fault in the battery pack of the early models was discovered to cause problems for the owners. A malfunction in one or more of the 288 battery cells delivers incorrect data to the battery management system, leading to incorrect estimation of the remaining battery range.

The issue was signaled by Brad Berman on plugincars.com after his Chevrolet Bolt came to a sudden stop not far from his home with zero miles of range left despite it showed about 100 of them just seconds earlier.

Shortly after Berman published his story, GM made a public statement acknowledging the problem: "We are aware of a small number of early Bolt EV customers who have experienced loss of propulsion. Due to a battery low voltage condition, the car may incorrectly report remaining range at low states of charge and lose propulsion before the customer expects."

"Of the more than 10,000 Bolt EVs sold to date, less than 1 percent have experienced this issue so far. Early production vehicles are more likely to have this issue, as we are always finding ways to improve quality throughout our supply chain."

"Through OnStar advanced diagnostics, we have identified the vehicles that could develop this condition over time and are contacting the affected customers to arrange for service."
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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