GM is prioritizing new battery packs for existing Chevy Bolt and Bolt EUV owners.
A new GM Authority report sheds light on how General Motors is faring with its ongoing recall repairs — an effort spanning the past several months and several billion dollars. The Lake Orion Assembly Plant in Michigan that builds the Bolt temporarily went back online on November 1st, but is now pausing serial production again as it prioritizes battery production to replace defective units in some 140,000 existing cars — every model since the car first went on sale back in 2017.
“GM has notified employees at Orion Assembly the plant will take downtime for the remainder of the 2021 calendar years,” GM spokesperson Dan Flores told GM Authority. “We will continue to inform employees at the appropriate time of any additional production schedule adjustments in early 2022, as we continue to focus on battery module replacements.”
The automaker is working with LG Chem, who manufactured the original modules, to build the updated packs as quickly as possible. LG is expected to shoulder most of the cost, which at this point is around $2 billion.
GM originally recommended owners park outside and avoid charging their cars above 90% or below 70 miles. Soon, the company will roll out a software update to block the Bolt EV from charging beyond 80%, per Electrek. That should be available to owners within the next month, and will remove the parking restrictions until technicians can replace the defective battery modules.
