2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV problems

What is wrong

General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2020-2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV and 2022 Bolt EUV vehicles previously repaired under Recall 21V‑650. The installation of advanced diagnostic software may have failed. As such, the high voltage battery could catch fire when charged to full or nearly full capacity.

Risk

A battery fire increases the risk of injury.

Remedy

Owners are advised to take the following interim steps: Set the Target Charge Level feature in their vehicle to limit the charge level to 90%, charge their vehicle more frequently, avoid depleting the battery to 70 miles range remaining, park outside after charging, and do not charge the vehicle indoors overnight. Dealers will reinstall advanced diagnostic software, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed December 3, 2024. Owners may contact the Bolt EV Concierge Team at 1‑833‑382‑4389. GM's number for this recall is N242470160.

Recall number 24V812000 · Recall details

What is wrong

General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2020-2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV and 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV vehicles that were previously remedied under recall number 21V‑650. The advanced diagnostic software may have been incorrectly installed and fail to detect defective battery modules, possibly resulting in a battery fire.

Risk

A battery fire increases the risk of injury.

Remedy

Owners are advised to take the following interim steps: Set the Target Charge Level feature in their vehicle to limit the charge level to 90%, charge their vehicle more frequently, avoid depleting the battery to 70 miles range remaining, park outside after charging, and do not charge the vehicle indoors overnight. Dealers will reinstall the advanced diagnostic software, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed on August 1, 2024. Owners may contact the Bolt EV Concierge Team at 1‑833‑382‑4389. GM's numbers for this recall are N242443000 and N242443002.

Recall number 24V481000 · Recall details

What is wrong

General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2017-2023 Chevrolet Bolt EV vehicles. This recall includes certain vehicles previously repaired incorrectly under the federal safety agency recall number 22V‑930. After a crash with seat belt pretensioner deployment, the pretensioner exhaust may ignite carpet fibers near the B-pillar, causing a fire.

Risk

A fire increases the risk of injury.

Remedy

Dealers will inspect both front seat belt pretensioners and, if necessary, install metal foil at the carpet near the pretensioner exhaust. Certain vehicles will also need a pretensioner cover installed. Repairs will be performed free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed January 24, 2024. These vehicles were previously recalled for this same issue under recall number 22V‑930 and will need to have the new remedy performed. Owners may contact GM EV Concierge at 1-833-EVCHEVY (1‑833‑382‑4389) (TTY 711 / 1‑800‑833‑2438) or Customer Service at 1‑800‑222‑1020. GM's number for this recall is N232421970.

Recall number 23V845000 · Recall details

What is wrong

General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2017-2023 Chevrolet Bolt EV vehicles. After a crash with seat belt pretensioner deployment, the pretensioner exhaust may ignite carpet fibers near the B-pillar, causing a fire.

Risk

A vehicle fire can increase the risk of injury.

Remedy

Dealers will install metal foil at the carpet near the pretensioner exhaust, and install a pretensioner cover as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed between January 23, 2023 and April 25, 2023. Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1‑800‑222‑1020. GM's number for this recall is N222383790.

Recall number 22V930000 · Recall details

What is wrong

General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2020-2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV and 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV vehicles. The high voltage battery could catch fire when charged to full or nearly full capacity.

Risk

A battery fire increases the risk of injury.

Remedy

Owners are advised to take the following interim steps: Set the Target Charge Level feature in their vehicle to limit the charge level to 90%, charge their vehicle more frequently, avoid depleting the battery to 70 miles range remaining, park outside after charging, and do not charge the vehicle indoors overnight. Defective battery modules will be replaced by GM, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed on October 1, 2021 and June 23, 2023. Owners may contact the Bolt EV Concierge Team at 1‑833‑382‑4389. This recall is an expansion of the federal safety agency recall 21V‑560. GM's number for this recall is N212345940.

Recall number 21V650000 · Recall details

What is wrong

General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV and 2021 GMC Canyon and Sierra 1500, 2500 and 3500, Yukon, Yukon XL, Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV and Chevrolet Blazer, Camaro, Colorado, Equinox, Silverado 1500, 2500 and 3500, Suburban and Tahoe vehicles. Incorrect bolts may have been used at one or more fastening locations to secure the seat belts to the vehicle. If an incorrect bolt was used, the seat belt may not be properly attached to the vehicle.

Risk

If a seat belt assembly is not properly attached to the vehicle, the seat belt may not properly restrain an occupant in the event of a crash, increasing the risk of injury.

Remedy

GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the suspect bolts, free of charge. The recall began January 29, 2021. Owners may contact GMC customer service at 1‑800‑462‑8785, Cadillac customer service at 1‑800‑458‑8006, or Chevrolet customer service at 1‑800‑222‑1020. GM's number for this recall is N202322230.

Recall number 20V811000 · Recall details

What is wrong

General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV vehicles. These vehicles may have an improperly cast front left brake caliper that can fracture during a high-pressure braking event.

Risk

If a brake caliper fractures and brake fluid is lost, the vehicle may experience reduced brake performance, increasing the risk of a crash.

Remedy

GM will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the casting lot number on the front left brake caliper and replace it if necessary, free of charge. The recall began January 29, 2021. Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1‑800‑222‑1020. GM's number for this recall is N202321400.

Recall number 20V808000 · Recall details

What is wrong

General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2019-2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV vehicles. The door-handle cable inside the rear doors may be too long, allowing contact with the window when it is opened, possibly damaging the cable. A damaged cable may cause the rear door to open unintentionally when the rear window is opened. Additionally, it may cause the rear inside door handle to not work.

Risk

If the rear door opens while driving, or the door handle fails to open the rear door, there is an increased risk of injury to the rear passengers.

Remedy

GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the rear inside door-handle cables, free of charge. The recall began April 17, 2020. Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1‑800‑222‑1020. GM's number for this recall is A202298320.

Recall number 20V184000 · Recall details

the federal safety agency received a petition on or about July 18, 2022, requesting that Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 141 be applied to all electric and hybrid vehicles operating in the United States. The petition can be reviewed at under ODI Number 11486072. FMVSS 141 establishes performance requirements for pedestrian alert sounds for motor vehicles. The standard applies to hybrid and electric vehicles that have a gross vehicle weight rating of 4,536 KG or less or are defined as low-speed vehicles. The standard became fully applicable to all such vehicles manufactured on or after March 1, 2021.On January 27, 2023, the federal safety agency opened Defect Petition (DP) 22-005 to evaluate the subject matter described in the petition. On June 24, 2023 and as supplemented on June 25, 2023, the petitioner notified the federal safety agency he was withdrawing his petition. The petitioner indicated that, based on his review of data, there is no justification for asserting potential benefits that could be derived from actions sought by my petition. Based on the petitioner's withdrawal, DP22-005 is closed. Closure of this DP does not represent a determination by the federal safety agency regarding the subject matter of the petition.

DP22005

In October 2020, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened a Preliminary Evaluation (PE) on 2017-2020 Model Year (MY) Chevrolet Bolt vehicles based on complaints received alleging that the vehicles caught fire under the seating area while parked and unattended. At the time, ODI had received 2 Vehicle Owner Questionnaires (VOQs) and several field reports. All complaints alleged vehicles caught fire during or after electrical charging.ODI's review found vehicle thermal events occurred during and/or at the end of the battery module charging cycle. The information learned from the federal safety agency and General Motors joint vehicle inspections prompted General Motors to file Recall 20V‑701 on April 29, 2021. The remedy for this recall included 1) performing diagnostic procedures to identify and replace potentially defective battery cell-module assemblies and 2) installing onboard diagnostic software, designed to detect and warn owners regarding potential issues related to changes in battery module performance over time. Until this interim remedy became available for all affected vehicles, General Motors instructed their customers to enable ?Hilltop Reserve or ?Target Charge Level, based on the vehicle-equipped technology. Enabling these technologies would limit charging capacity of the battery module to a maximum of 90 percent. General Motors then continued to investigate the root cause of these battery cell module thermal events, which would lead them to their long-term recall remedy solution. Utilizing the information obtained from the Recall 20V‑701 software update, General Motors and LG Energy Solutions,the supplier of the battery cell module pack along with LG Electronics,determined the root cause of the thermal events to be the result of two simultaneous manufacturing defects occurring in the same battery cell. The defect condition appears to be aggravated by routinely charging the battery to a full or nearly full state of charge after it has been substantially depleted. The two defects, located within the same battery cell module, would cause an internal short within the battery pack, resulting in the thermal events. The manufacturing process was changed to prevent the occurrence of these two defect conditions.On July 24, 2021, General Motors filed a defect information report recalling all 2017-2018 Chevrolet Bolt and certain 2019 Chevrolet Bolt vehicles with design level N2.1 battery cell produced at the LG Ochang, Korea plant. This remedy replaces defective battery cell-modules and will prevent potential thermal events from occurring during and/or at the end of the charge cycle. The recall (21V‑560) includes vehicles that were remedied under 20V‑701.General Motors continued to review new data after Recall 21V‑560 and learned of an incident that occurred outside of the scope of the recall population. Additional analysis led General Motors and LGES to determine that the manufacturing defects defined by Recall 21V‑560 were not isolated to one battery manufacturing plant. On August 21, 2021, General Motors filed a defect information report to expand the scope of recall 21V‑560. The recall (21V‑650) includes all 2019-2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV and 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV vehicles. In view of the recall actions being taken by General Motors, ODI is closing this Preliminary Evaluation. the federal safety agency reserves the right to take additional action if warranted by future circumstances.The ODI reports cited above can be reviewed online at under the following identification numbers:11230072, 11425524, 11339878, 11365622, 11364692, 11427180, 11429891, 11374956, 11407212, 11372429, 11425225, 11415800

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