General Motors halted production of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV at its Orion Assembly plant and it has been stopped since August of last year when a recall was announced and the sale of new examples was also stopped. Production was temporarily restarted on November 1, but it was stopped again two weeks later and it has not been restarted since.
Now, according to a report coming from the Detroit Free Press, the shutdown will now be extended until April 4, so for another almost two months. The source quotes Dan Flores, a General Motors spokesperson, as saying
Our unprecedented decision to idle Bolt EV and EUV production over the past months has enabled us to prioritize battery module replacements. As a result, we’ve made replacements available to Bolt EV owners who were in our high priority groups.
Flores goes on to say that GM will not give up on fixing the electric Bolt’s problems and that it intends to restart sales as soon as possible. The priority is still to fix affected models, whose battery pack manufactured by LG Chem has a defect that poses a potential fire risk and GM has vowed replace all faulty battery packs at no cost to the owners.
Between the two models, the Bolt EV and the Bolt EUV crossover, they total around 140,000 and GM has so far confirmed 15 of the known 18 fires were caused by the faulty battery pack. Apparently, not all owners of affected vehicles have set up a service visit to have new battery modules installed, but according to Flores, the process is ongoing.
We’re continuing to complete more replacements each day. As a result of this progress and our supplier’s ability to provide more module production, we feel confident we can balance replacements along with new retail production.
