General Motors LLC recall 20V701

Related investigation

NHTSA opened an investigation that led to this recall.

• PE20016PEEscalated to RecallOpened Oct 9, 2020
  Electric Vehicle Battery Fires

Affected vehicles (1)

Component / system

Defect

General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling all 2017-2018 and certain 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV vehicles. The high voltage battery could catch fire when charged to full or nearly full capacity.

Risk / consequence

A battery fire increases the risk of injury.

Remedy

This recall has been superseded by recall number 21V-560. Vehicles previously repaired under 20V-701 will still need to have the new remedy under recall 21V-560. GM will notify owners, and as an interim repair, beginning on November 17, 2020, dealers will reprogram the hybrid propulsion control module 2 (HPCM2) to limit the full charge to 90%, free of charge. Owners are advised to activate either the Hill Top Reserve (2017 and 2018 models) or Target Charge Level (2019 models) feature in their vehicle to limit the charge level to 90%, or park outside, until the software update is completed. Owners were notified of the interim repair beginning November 17, 2020. The second notice was mailed on May 11, 2021. Owners may contact the Bolt EV Concierge Team at 1-833-382-4389. GM's number for this recall is N202311730.

Chronology of events

1. Jul 20, 2020

   From July 20, 2020 through August 26, 2020, GM received four claims alleging that the high-voltage battery pack in a Chevrolet Bolt vehicle caused a fire. GM opened a product investigation on August 26, 2020 to investigate these claims. From August 26, 2020 through November 5, 2020, GM's product investigation team conducted field- and warranty-data searches and onsite vehicle inspections to investigate the origin of the alleged fires. GM also worked with LG Chem, the supplier of the high-voltage battery cells, to identify a potential root cause. In total, GM has identified 12 fire-related allegations involving 2017 through 2019 model year Chevrolet Bolt vehicles that may be battery-related. Of these 12 claims, GM has, to date, confirmed that a battery-related fire appears to have occurred in five cases. These five incidents occurred on: March 17, 2019; June 29, 2020; July 4, 2020; July 30, 2020; and August 25, 2020. GM has pre-incident battery state-of-charge data on four of these incidents; in all four cases, the vehicle's high-voltage battery pack appears to have been at a high state of charge, according to the available data, just before the fire occurred. GM updated NHTSA regarding the status of its investigation on September 2, 2020; September 16, 2020; September 30, 2020; and October 21, 2020. On November 5, 2020, GM’s Safety and Field Action Decision Authority decided to conduct a safety recall.

Notification schedule

Dealer notification

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Owner notification

MAY 13, 2021 - MAY 31, 2021