General Motors announced the recall of 140,000 Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles (EVs) in North America due to fire risks regarding the deployment of front seatbelt pretensioners.
The Detroit-based automaker made the announcement on Dec. 20, after it was found that the carpet in the front row passenger seat could catch fire after a crash.
The electric powered Chevrolet Bolt has so far had an excellent reputation and was named the 2017 Motor Trend Card of the Year.
About 120,000 vehicles in the United States and 20,000 Canadian vehicles will be impacted by the recall.
The recall covers various Chevrolet Bolt EV models from 2017 through 2023, due to the rare cases when front seatbelt pretensioner exhaust gases set fire to car floor carpeting fibers during auto crashes.
GM Internal Investigation Finds The Source Of The Fires
GM discovered the fiery defect after it was reported that a 2018 model Bolt EV in Korea caught fire, according to a filing (pdf) with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.The problem was initially submitted to GM’s “Speak Up for Safety” program on Sept. 15 following the incident.
An investigation discovered that the seatbelt deployment issue was behind the fires.
The American automaker said they could so far confirm three cases that may have been caused by the defect.
GM announced in a press release that “dealers will install metal foil at the carpet near the pretensioner exhaust,” and that “certain vehicles will also need a pretensioner cover installed.”The new design changes were implemented in production models from Oct. 25 onward.
Bolt Recalls After 2020 Battery Fires
The Chevy Bolt was also the subject of an earlier recall in November 2020 when 50,932 vehicles from the model year 2017-2019 were recalled due to a potential fire risk.GM found that models containing electric car batteries, manufactured at the South Korean LG Chem’s Ochang plant, posed a fire safety risk “when charged to full, or very close to full, capacity.”
The faulty batteries caused at least 13 vehicles to catch fire due to the faulty batteries, said GM.
The carmaker has since issued software updates for the vehicle models to fix the issue.
LG additionally agreed to compensate GM $1.9 billion for the recall, which was expected to cost $2 billion, according to GM.
A second recall was issued in July 2021 for nearly 69,000 2017-2019 model vehicles over two additional fires related to defective LG battery modules following the software updates. GM and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at the time urged affected Bolt owners to park their vehicles outside and away from homes after charging.
The recall did not impact newer Bolt vehicles with a different battery design or fleet vehicles at GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicle division.
