Top Car major General Motors has plans to recall nearly 69,000 Chevrolet Bolt electric cars from around the world. The reason being that the batteries have caught fire in five of them. The company has said, that the reason is still unknown. However, they cannot just let it be. The engineers from the esteemed company are trying to find out the reason behind the mishap.
Norms Set By U.S Safety Regulators
Moreover, if reports are to be believed, two people have already suffered due to inhalation of the poisonous chemical smoke, and one house has caught fire. U.S safety regulators have asked all car owners to park the cars outdoors, until the cars are picked up for further scrutiny.
Until further fixes are developed, or the company manages to find out the reasons behind the batteries catching fire, dealers are installing software. These softwares, are made in a way to check overcharging. Furthermore, the software will limit charging to 90 %, the company’s Executive Chief Engineer has said.
The recall will include Bolts sold in 2017 till 2019. There are approximately 51, 000 Bolt cars in the U.S. alone. The news comes one month after the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced, that it had started investigating fires.
Investigation reports have divulged that the fire arises under the rear seats, while being parked. Jesse Ortega, the company’s Executive Chief Engineer has said that engineers have traced the fire to Bolts with battery cells made at the LG Chem plant in Ochang, South Korea. The period is from May 2016 till May 2019.
The fires occurred, after the batteries crossed 90 % of the charge. As per Ortega, there weren’t any complaints for batteries made at other locations. The Bolts manufactured in the year 2019-2021 having cells made at the LG Chem plant at Holland are not included in the recall.
Close Monitoring By GM Required
General Motors have plans to find the underlying cause and repair the recalled cars as fast as possible. The engineers at GM, are looking at several reasons for the cause. However, the solution and possible explanation release will take at least a year. The company has advised the car owners, to manually charge their vehicles, until a software update is available. GM is asking owners to manually change the adjustable settings, so that the batteries are not fully charged. Those who are not able to do so have been advised to park the Bolt cars outdoors.
Government Safety Agency NHTSA has said, that until a permanent solution is arrived at, owners should park their cars outside. NHTSA has said, that these vehicles are at a risk of catching fires, even if the ignition is turned off, and the wires are disconnected from the charging units. GM has stated, that it would start sending the intimation call for the recall to dealers and customers in a short while. General Motors is currently co-operating with NHTSA. The software will supposedly, cut of the fully-charged status of the cars by 10%.
However, it needs to be done to stop further damage. Older cars will still run 238 miles per charge. The National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating the problems with electric-vehicles fires.
