2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV

The defect

General Motors, LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2017-2023 Chevrolet Bolt EV vehicles. This recall includes certain vehicles previously repaired incorrectly under NHTSA 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.

The risk

A fire increases the risk of injury.

The 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.

General Motors, LLC · up to 6,771 vehicles across all model years covered

The defect

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.

The risk

A vehicle fire can increase the risk of injury.

The 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.

General Motors, LLC · up to 111,242 vehicles across all model years covered

The defect

General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling certain 2018-2019 Chevrolet Equinox, Impala, Cruze, Volt and Bolt EV vehicles, GMC Terrain vehicles, Buick Lacrosse and Regal vehicles, Cadillac XTS and XTS Professional vehicles and 2018 Chevrolet Malibu vehicles. The rear brake caliper pistons may have an insufficient coating causing gas pockets to form, potentially reducing rear brake performance.

The risk

A reduction of braking performance can increase the risk of a crash.

The remedy

GM will notify owners, and dealers will bleed the vehicle's brake system, free of charge. The recall began October 11, 2018. Owners may contact Buick customer service at 1-800-521-7300, Cadillac customer service at 1-800-458-8006, Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020, or GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is 18279.

General Motors LLC · up to 210,628 vehicles across all model years covered

Closed preliminary evaluation · opened October 3, 2024 · closed June 5, 2025

equipment

On October 3, 2024, the Office of Defects Investigations (ODI) opened PE24028 to investigate alleged failures of Enel X Way's JuiceBox Level 2 residential EV chargers. The allegations were described as thermal incidents and electrical malfunctions, which could trip the circuit breakers in Juicebox owners’ homes and disrupt electric vehicle charge cycles. On October 2, 2024, Enel X Way posted on its website that Enel X Way North America would cease operations in the United States and Canada on October 11, 2024. The closure would potentially impact the charging app and supporting software. ODI sent Enel X Way an Information Request (IR) letter on October 21, 2024. Enel X Way provided an incomplete response to the IR on December 9, 2024. Enel X Way later provided a complete response to the IR on January 24, 2025. ODI reviewed Enel X Way’s IR submissions to determine whether further action is required. Based on ODI’s analysis, there was no clear trend in the cause of the failures described in customer complaints and warranty reports. Additionally, there have been no recent reports alleging safety issues. The available information does not warrant further action at this time. The closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by NHTSA that a safety-related defect does not exist. The Agency will continue to monitor for any safety trends and reserves the right to take additional action if warranted by future circumstances. To review the ODI reports cited in this Closing Resume, go to NHTSA.gov.

Closed defect petition · opened January 27, 2023 · closed August 7, 2023 · led to recall 22V063000

the electrical system

NHTSA 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 NHTSA.gov 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, NHTSA 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 NHTSA 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 NHTSA regarding the subject matter of the petition.

Closed preliminary evaluation · opened October 9, 2020 · closed February 7, 2022 · led to recall 20V701000

the electrical system

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 NHTSA 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. NHTSA reserves the right to take additional action if warranted by future circumstances.The ODI reports cited above can be reviewed online at nhtsa.gov under the following identification numbers:11230072, 11425524, 11339878, 11365622, 11364692, 11427180, 11429891, 11374956, 11407212, 11372429, 11425225, 11415800

crash · towed

The incident involves a 2018 Chevy Bolt EV. I arrived at a parking space next to the electric charging station where I generally park the car. I park perpendicular to the side wall of a house. There is a small garden bed (about 2 ft wide) between the house and the parking area. As I pulled up I was not exactly perpendicular to the wall. I believe I was in Drive Low and had completely stopped or perhaps nearly stopped when I decided to tweak my parking position a bit to be exactly perpendicular to the wall. My intent was to apply the accelerator and ease over a few inches to park, but when I began to do so the car took off suddenly and uncontrollably and crashed into the side of the house. …

NHTSA complaint 11423286, quoted in part. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

Power steering assist cut out while driving and traction controllight came on. There is now no steering assist. The car is with the dealer shop and their diagnostics indicate the the steering column needs to be replaced. Dealer shop now says the steering column is on EXTREME backorder with no time estimate of availability. The car is almost impossible to steer at low speeds.The power steering rack and pinnion assembly was replaced back in August of 2023 due to the rack binding, so that part is realatively new.

NHTSA complaint 11755068. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

When driving at parking lot speeds, I hear a clunk sound and I feel some vibration in the steering column. This is not observed at higher speeds. Also, the steering intermittently becomes stiff and at other times is loose.

NHTSA complaint 11740952. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

Steering randomly will fail to return to center in turns, causing the driver to have to manually turn wheel back to center. Happens in both sharp and sweeping turns in both the left and right direction while accelerating, decelerating, and maintaining speed. Issue occurs several times a week. I nearly hit an oncoming car head-on in a very gentle sweeping left hand turn on May 10th when my Bolt continued turning left rather than re-center when I stopped giving it left steering input. I was going about 35 and decelerating gently for a stop sign at a T intersection at the bottom of a mild downhill slope of 5 to 10 degrees. The car I nearly hit was approaching in the opposite lane on the inside …

NHTSA complaint 11739669, quoted in part. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

Steering clunks during low speed maneuvers, shimmy started while rounding a curve at highway speed on uneven pavement. Local garage has identified it as a broken steering gear. Car has only 36000 miles.

NHTSA complaint 11732251. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

The steering wheel gets stuck, is difficult to turn, and doesn't return to center. Issues with this make the car much more difficult to drive and makes it impossible to sense the state of the road with the steering wheel. This can lead to loss of control. No warning lamps or messages informed me of this issue.

NHTSA complaint 11730418. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

Steering doesn't return to center when moving. When moving at low speeds steering is heavy. Possible steering gear issue. Always present while driving vehicle and turning.

NHTSA complaint 11729176. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.