2018 CHEVROLET BOLT EV Fuel/propulsion System Problems

Vehicle arrived with windshield chip, transport company provided proof happened before transport. Brake failure on first use after delivery. Reduced-propulsion warning triggered. Both passenger-side door locks failed. Center-console power and data failed (replacements pending). Rear and passenger-side cameras blurry (replacements pending). GM manufacturer buyback vehicle. Safety defect occurred immediately after delivery. Vehicle down more than 50 days. Dealer delayed title paperwork to Tennessee for 44 days and delayed delivering finance contract/payment instructions to buyers for 50 days. GM Financial issued late notices before contract was delivered. Dealer has not responded to reimbursement deadline. Safety and delivery failures created unsafe condition and administrative harm.

Have inquired repeatedly since recall no. 21V560 issued. Told each time by authorized GM dealer that replacement lithium-ion batter pack is not available yet. Coming up on two years and presumably my vehicle remains at increased risk of fire. Would like GM to execute on the recall and repair.

I received a "Propulsion Power Reduced" warning indicator on my 2018 Chevy Bolt while driving on the highway. Although I did not lose power, I am afraid to drive my car. I am advised by the car repairer that I should not drive the vehicle until it is repaired because it may stop suddenly without warning. GM has never contacted me about this safety issue despite being aware of the problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should open an investigation and issue a safety recall on this issue. This problem should be categorized as a severe safety hazard and listed on the NHTSA website for the benefit of consumers.

My Chevrolet Bolt was subject to the recall for battery problems causing fires, as was described by NSTB above. I took it in for free servicing at Chuck Olson Chevrolet KIA, in Shoreline, WA on July 26, 2021 as directed. (I bought the vehicle new from them). After servicing was completed and supposedly the computer was reset so as not to allow the car to charge beyond 80% of its battery capacity, I took it to a public charger operated by ChargePoint, Inc. at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle to charge it. I left it attached to the charger on the assumption that it would shut off electric charge to the vehicle automatically, once it had reached the 80% level. It greatly exceeded this before automatically shutting down when the charge reached a 300 mile range estimate of charge. The vehicle's officially stated charge range estimate is 238 miles. I expect that the recall repair done by Chuck Olson Chevrolet would have prevented this from happening. This action puts my vehicle and me at risk of a serious battery fire problem that was the official reason that NTSB initiated the recall requirement. I would like a clarification of whether the NTSB expected the repair done by Chuck Olson Chevrolet to prevent this, as they may be causing a fire for which they or the manufacturer would be liable.

The battery system has a defect that GM admits could lead to a fire. Since November 2020, they advised me to not charge the car above 90% of capacity. They now are also advising not to discharge below 30%, to not charge overnight, and to park outside once charged. One car fire involved a vehicle that regularly only charged to 75%, so, to be safe, I won't charge to more than 70%. That leaves me with only 40% of my battery (24% in winter). My system in my garage only has power during overnight hours, so no charging overnight means I can't charge my car. GM has a final remedy that involves analyzing the battery for defective modules and installing advanced diagnostic software to detect performance issues before they cause a problem. The huge problem with that remedy is that there have been two fires in cars that had their batteries analyzed and had the diagnostic software installed. That means their system for detecting and preventing fires DOES NOT WORK. In the final remedy, GM will only replace modules that they find are defective. After the remedy work is done, GM says customers can charge their vehicles to 100% with full confidence. If their detection system is faulty, as evidenced by subsequent fires, how can anyone confidently go to sleep at night and charge to 100%? Their detection system relies on software to detect issues. My vehicle has had software problems that include charging to full when only programmed to charge for 2 hours, infotainment system fails to initiate, vehicle fails to recognize key fob, cruise control fails to initiate, touch screen won't respond which prevents operation of all systems controlled through the screen. I have no confidence that GM can detect the known battery defect in modules with 100% certainty. Anything less than 100% means I can't charge my car in my garage and still sleep at night. Also, GM has no idea when final remedy will be ready, and I shouldn't have to live with 40% of my battery for an unknown time.

My vehicle is being affected by 2 recalls for a battery that might melt or burn. The vehicle is also experiencing issues with the infotainment system that is malfunctioning/restarting/shutting down while driving. This is extremely distracting and dangerous and causes the vehicle speed area to fade out as the system restarts. Our family is severely limited by the charge limit, minimum miles, or by having to park it outside and not charge it overnight. We live in an fire brush area and are very stressed about having the vehicle potentially catch on fire and burn down our neighborhood. I tried to trade in the vehicle so that we could move on and they won't accept the car with an open warranty recall. The carfax information literally states that the remedy is NOT YET AVAILABLE. How can we move on and what do we do with our original investment of over $48k? I have taken the vehicle into the dealership to have the software update installed twice and still don't know if it has been done or whether the cars battery has been tested and the numbers are within the acceptable parameters. The infotainment system still does not work properly and I am worried that the vehicle is malfunctioning. My wife has now issued the ultimate - I cannot park the car or charge the car at our home. She is stressed beyond belief and I will have to leave the car at the local dealership to charge it and wait for whatever remedy they come up with whenever it might happen.

The remedy proposed by GM for the risk of catastrophic fire is inadequate. I live in an area with frequent hail storms and leaving the car outside at night would subject it to severe damage. More importantly, I live in a high-wildfire-risk area with almost daily high winds (30-50 mph) especially at night and morning. Even if the car were parked outside, it is likely to ignite the foliage and create an uncontrollable wildfire that would consume this entire valley with approximately 1500 homes with an average value of over $1.5 million dollars. That works out to over $2 billion in structural risk from a fire from this single vehicle. Two days ago, my Bolt starting honking its horn at 9pm - one of the fire warnings programmed by Chevy. Although it proved to be a false alarm of unknown cause, the fire department responded with two engines. The responding fire captain told me that due to the wildfire risk, the only safe place to park the car would be a Safeway parking lot 4.5 miles away. That makes the car unusable. The proposed remedy could take more than a year to implement, especially since GM has known about this risk for more than a year and has made no contingency plans to replace defective batteries in that time. I have contacted GM twice explaining the extraordinary risk that this defect causes to my community and asked for a buyback. So far, other than asking for a copy of the title, purchase order and odometer reading, I've had no response.

The safety of myself and my family and my house is put at risk from the second recall related to the battery. Also the range of the car during the recall is about half of what was the advertised range when I purchased the vehicle. Come winter, this may leave me stranded depending on the weather.

35% REDUCTION IN RANGE WITH NORMAL DRIVING CONDITIONS, ADDITIONAL 27% REDUCTION IN RANGE AFTER COURTESY RECALL #18125 LOS OF PROPULSION HIGH VOLTAGE BATTERY WITHOUT NOTIFICATION. GM ACKNOWLEDGES RANGE LOSS, THEY INFORMED ME THIS IS NORMAL, UNABLE TO USE VEHICLE FOR WORK COMMUTING

Mileage: 16,045

WHILE APPROACHING A BUSY INTERSECTION OF A BUSY CITY STREET, AS COMING TO A STOP FIRST USING REGENERATIVE BRAKING, THEN APPLYING THE MECHANICAL BRAKES, THE GAUGE CLUSTER READ "LIMITED DRIVING CAPABILITY" (OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT). AS I CAME TO A STOP THE CAR SHIFTED ITSELF TO PARK AND APPLIED THE PARKING BRAKE. I ATTEMPTED TO SHIFT INTO DRIVE AND TAKE OFF THE PARKING BRAKE, WITH NO SUCCESS. THE VEHICLE INSTRUCTED TO GO BACK INTO PARK, WHICH IT DID WITHOUT MY INTERVENTION. I TRIED REVERSE AND NEUTRAL WITH NO EFFECT. ALL OTHER ELECTRONICS APPEARED TO WORK PROPERLY. I PUT ON THE HAZARD LIGHTS. I TRIED TURNING THE VEHICLE OFF AND BACK ON BY PRESSING THE START BUTTON, BUT THE CAR REBOOTED SHOWING A GLOBE LIKE GRAPHIC WHICH SAID SOMETHING TO THE EFFECT OF "RE-INITIALIZING". POLICE WERE CALLED AT THIS POINT AS I WAS LIMITING SAFE TRAFFIC MOVEMENT BY BLOCKING A LANE. I ATTEMPTED THE RESTARTING PROCEDURE REPETITIVELY, WITH NO SUCCESS TO GET THE VEHICLE MOVING AGAIN. A TOW TRUCK WAS REQUIRED TO MOVE THE VEHICLE FROM THE ROAD AS THE ROAD WAS TOO DANGEROUS TO TRY PUSHING THE VEHICLE, AND THE CAR DID NOT APPEAR TO BE ABLE TO GO INTO NEUTRAL. MY DEALERSHIP STATES THEY ARE GOING TO REPLACE THE "TRANSMISSION" TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM.

Mileage: 265

THE BOLT EV HAS A STEERING-WHEEL MOUNTED REGENERATIVE BREAKING PADDLE, WHICH APPLIES THE REGENERATIVE BREAKING, SLOWING THE VEHICLE. HOWEVER, WHEN THE BATTERY IS FULLY CHARGED, THIS PADDLE DOES NOTHING, WHICH HAS RESULTED IN SOME NEAR MISSES. A WARNING INDICATOR SHOULD BE PRESENT, OR THE DOCUMENTATION SHOULD SUGGEST ENABLING "HILLTOP RESERVE" TO PREVENT THIS FROM OCCURRING. I HAVE REPORTED THIS TO CHEVY, BUT NO RESPONSES WERE RECEIVED.

Mileage: 4,500