A 2019 Chevrolet Bolt caught fire in a garage in Georgia on the September 13, 2021
No injuries were reported and property damage was minimal
A timeframe for the recall of all Chevrolet Bolt models ever made has yet to be announced
Among growing unrest from Bolt owners, another fire caused by a defective battery pack puts oil on the fire.
General Motors has been working on a solution to this dangerous problem for months now, but owners still haven’t heard about when their car could be receiving a new battery, which seems to be the only way to prevent more fires.
Yesterday’s fire is the 13th confirmed case of an otherwise undamaged Bolt going up in flames.
In this case, the owners of the vehicle, a gray 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV, were very lucky that their fire department arrived so quickly, because they didn’t follow GM’s temporary guidelines which explicitly says to park the cars outside.
Indeed, this situation could have ended terribly since the car was parked inside a garage next to a 2017 Ram 1500, which suffered minor smoke-related damage. If the firefighters didn’t show up so readily, the garage would have been engulfed, as well as the house next to it.
By looking at the details of the other Bolt fires, it seems the fire risk is more pronounced on 2019 model year vehicles, although every year of production from 2017 to 2021 is concerned by the recall.
Owners are getting angry at GM because of the long wait and the lack of information, which leaves them with a vehicle that is impractical to use and potentially unsafe for the foreseeable future.
Some of these owners now say they wouldn’t be satisfied by any solution put forth by General Motors short of a buyback.
