Owners of the 2020-2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV models are going wild on social media after General Motors informed them that not all vehicles included in the recall are eligible for a battery/high voltage module replacement.
GM told them that free diagnostic software will allow vehicles to charge to 100% and monitor the battery for abnormalities. If the tool detects any abnormalities, GM will replace the drive battery or its affected modules.
Before we go any further, note that this only applies to 2020-2022 Bolt EV and 2022 Bolt EUV owners. 2017-2019 Bolt EV owners should still receive a replacement battery.
Unsurprisingly, 2020-2022 Chevy Bolt owners aren’t happy with this change given that General Motors has already replaced the drive batteries in 2020-2022 Bolt EVs as part of the infamous Bolt EV battery recall.
A member of the Chevy Bolt EV and EUV Owners Group on Facebook says GM told them it tested the batteries removed on the 2020-2022 bolts and most were not found to be faulty, so they didn’t need to be replaced.
“I received a call today from the Chevrolet Concierge letting me know that GM has developed a software fix instead of replacing the main battery on the 2020-2022 bolts. They will be installing software that will restore the vehicle to working order. charge to 100% and it monitors the car to see if there are any faults in the battery. Once it passes these tests they will remove the safety recall on your vehicle.
I made an appointment with my dealer to install this software next week. They told me that GM had tested the batteries removed on the 2020-2020 bolts and found that most were not defective so they did not need to be replaced.”
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Here’s what General Motors had to say about it in a statement to Electrek.
“GM will provide owners of certain 2020-2022 Chevrolet Bolt EVs and EUVs covered by a previously announced recall with new advanced diagnostic software. The software will continuously monitor the battery for any potential abnormalities and, if none are detected after approximately 6,200 miles (10,000 km) of use, the battery will automatically return to 100% charge without a trip to the dealer.
If an abnormality is detected, the software will alert the owner via a message on the Driver Information Center and the owner should then contact their dealer to schedule a battery or module replacement.
The software is free and will need to be installed by their reseller via a brief service appointment.
Owners of select 2020-2022 model year Bolt EVs and EUVs can begin scheduling installation at their Chevy EV dealer on June 13, 2023.”
The fact remains that so far GM has said it will replace defective battery modules on all 2020-2022 bolts included in the recall, so What has changed in the meantime? Well, May 26, 2023 the automaker submitted a 573 report to NHTSA which effectively separates the recall of 2020-2022 Bolt vehicles – labeled 21V-650 – from the 2017-2019 Bolt recall, which is identified as 21V-560.
In the new document, GM says the recall includes 45,049 Chevrolet Bolt EVs produced between May 2, 2019 and August 17, 2021, and 7,368 Bolt EUVs produced between February 18, 2021 and August 12, 2021. The main news here is the introduction of advanced diagnostic software which will decide which battery modules need to be replaced.
“In certain vehicles that GM believes may contain faulty battery modules, the remedy is replacement of the vehicle’s high-voltage block. In all other vehicles, the remedy is installation of advanced diagnostic software that will monitor battery performance and identify faulty battery modules that need to be replaced.”
On the Bolt EV recall page on GM website, the automaker states that “based on manufacturing and diagnostic information, certain 2020-2022 Bolt EV/EUV are not eligible for advanced diagnostic software.” These vehicles will have their lithium-ion battery modules replaced with new ones “as a precaution”. GM says it will notify customers when replacement parts are ready.
We’ve reached out to the automaker for more details, and we’ll update this story when we get back to you.
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