2020 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 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.

The 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.

The 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.

General Motors, LLC · up to 470 vehicles across all model years covered

The defect

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.

The risk

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

The 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.

General Motors, LLC · up to 464 vehicles across all model years covered

The defect

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.

The 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.

The 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.

General Motors LLC · up to 897 vehicles across all model years covered

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

Steering rack is starting to fail at under 47000 miles, car pulls to right during acceleration and pulls left when decelerating. Steering wheel does not return to the center and a slight left pull on the wheel has to be maintained at all times so the car doesn't merge right into traffic. It is available upon inspection request. I almost didn't realize it pulling to the right and almost merged into another car on the highway. It has not been confirmed yet by a third party. It has not been inspected yet. No warning lights or messages occured when it started happening.

NHTSA complaint 11755357. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

GM installed Advanced Monitoring Software on the car rather than replace the battery. The software detected a battery fault. Under the battery recall if a fault is detected the battery is replaced free of charge. GM is refusing to replace the battery. Now the car will not move.

NHTSA complaint 11748422. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

General Motors is using the arbitrary 6,213-mile tracking window of Recall 944 to deny coverage for a diagnosed Cell Section 3 hardware failure at 123,582 miles. However, this vehicle is directly impacted by the failure parameters outlined in the expanded GM Safety Recall N242470160 / N242470162, where GM openly acknowledges to federal regulators that the advanced diagnostic software has failed to properly detect defective battery modules. By denying a physical battery replacement when a manufacturing defect is caught during a mandatory corporate software reconfiguration, GM is violating the spirit and legal intent of their ongoing federal safety recall campaigns.

NHTSA complaint 11745256. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

Steering stiffened over several weeks. Then steering wheel would not automatically return to center while turning while driving. Diagnosed by service as a fault with steering column. This is apparently very common in Chevy Bolts.

NHTSA complaint 11742825. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

After putting washer fluid in, my son closed the hood. The hood did not latch. He tried again but it still didn’t latch. He lifted the hood to find the hood striker had come off the hood. There was nothing to hold the hood closed. I’ve included photos of the striker welds. There is no rust or tearing of the welds. It just separated. It was a bad weld.

NHTSA complaint 11742485. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

When driving the car through a busy intersection there was a sudden, brief surge of acceleration, followed by deceleration and the vehicle cutting all motor power and becoming inoperable. The MIL lamp illuminated and the "Ready" light went out. I was unable to move the vehicle out of traffic until I got out and disconnected / reconnected the 12v battery to reset the car systems. The problem is difficult to reproduce, happening randomly, sometimes with multiple months between incidents. The incidents happen with no warning, and there are no other symptoms associated with the issue. The dealer mechanic indicated it is likely the issue indicated in Chevrolet TSB 19-NA-220, indicating the root …

NHTSA complaint 11741473, quoted in part. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.