‘Burning’ electric cars will cost General Motors almost two billion – PRAVDA.sk

In two calls for actions, more than 140,000 electric Bolts have to be serviced. The problem is the batteries from LG Chem.

Overseas, they have been struggling for a long time with the problem of an electric car with ambitions to “break” Tesla’s unshakable position in the local market. It is an electric Chevrolet Bolt. Although it held up really well on the market, it has currently become a nightmare for General Motors, causing huge losses.

It started burning – the US National Highway Safety Agency officially contacting Bolt’s owners with a warning not to park their cars in underground garages, parking garages, or even their own garages. At the same time, she advised them not to let their cars charge in chargers all night unattended, even if they have a wall-box outside.

The problem is in the batteries. By the way, these are again batteries from LG Chem, which also cause fires in some electric cars of Hyundai and Kia cars, especially Kony Electric. Even in their case, it is a billion loss.

The American carmaker General Motors has currently extended the call to Bolt Bolt for inspection due to the above-mentioned risk of battery fire. This will increase its cost of repairing these vehicles by about $ 1 billion. Originally, GM called in more than 50,000 Bolts produced from July 2017 to September 2019. The latest calls for service are also Bolt vehicles produced from 2019 practically to the present day.

Read more The Chevrolet Bolt has already cost GM $ 0.8 billion. And it’s still burning

The call will cover two manufacturing faults that may occur in the batteries and may cause a fire in “exceptional circumstances”, the group said in a press release. The latest measures will increase GM’s costs, which have already reached $ 812 million in previous Bolt model calls. They are thus approaching the limit of two billion dollars. GM has said it will seek damages from LG’s battery supplier. A similar step was announced by Hyundai / Kia.

The latest call involves approximately 73,000 cars sold in the US and Canada. Together with the July “caller”, more than 140,000 Bolts have to be serviced. In most cases, the batteries will be completely replaced.