Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle? | Page 294 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?

Freddy Fudpucker said:
............. Lucid's cars also occupy a luxury niche, with the Air Dream Edition starting at $169K before federal and state incentives. Lucid hopes to eventually offer more affordable versions of the Air, like one that will sell for about $77K, and the company is also working on an SUV.
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For me, 77K is as affordable as 169K. At this rate it will be ICE for me for a loooooong time.
 
GreyGhost said:
Ice cars have their issues but they seem to spontaneously combust much less often than current EV's.
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I'm not so sure.

Evidently there are approx 180,000 all-causes car fires in the USA, among a vehicle population of approx 280 million, so there is a 0.064% chance of any random car catching fire each year.

There are about 140,000 Chevrolet Bolts out there. They've been on the road an average of about two years, so that's about 280,000 vehicle-years. There's been about 20 fires from all causes (not just battery fires).

For all the hoopla, they're 8 times LESS likely to catch fire than the average car on US roads ... granted, something over half the Bolt fires have been due to "something the manufacturer/supplier did", which means it's a problem, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big problem.

EVs in general are less likely to have filling-station incidents (not possible), oil leaks, fuel leaks (not possible), set fire to dry grass or leaves underneath the vehicle, etc.
 
The ICE cars are far more likely to combust due to external factors, not poor designs like the EV's in question.
 
Brian P said:
granted, something over half the Bolt fires have been due to "something the manufacturer/supplier did", which means it's a problem, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big problem.
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Last figure I read says it will cost GM $1.8 Billion dollars to fix this. that Billion with a B. and expected to climb with the buy backs and such.

I would say its a big enough problem, and an admittance that if they left things "as is" it would only be a matter of time before the the rest of the Bolts explode too.
 
Oh, no question this is a big financial problem for GM (and Hyundai, and LG). But for someone who owns one of these cars, it's a low risk except for 2019 Bolts built early that model year (i.e. the last of the battery packs built in Korea). I don't believe there have been any battery fires for the US-built battery packs (late 2019 model year and onward) but the issue with those is that LG can't prove that there isn't a problem. Early-2019 Bolts account for something like half of the recorded battery fires. Why LG dropped the ball so badly on quality control just as production was about to move elsewhere, who knows.

GM hasn't issued a "stop driving" the way Ford did with my sister's (gasoline-engine) Escape ... three times.

Given that GM and LG know what the two specific assembly defects are, I am thinking that someone is building visual-inspection equipment at strategic places on the line to do 100% automated inspection to check specifically for those defects. Perhaps they are subtly changing dimensions on the cell materials to absolutely ensure that neither the anode nor the cathode can overlap beyond the separator.
 
I have a hunch, its a bigger compounding problem that even they can't solve fully, ultimately, a poorly engineered initial design, with each side pointing fingers. That can't be good for internal relations moving forward with rising tensions.

They've known about this issue since 2019 (I am willing to bet they knew well before that internally),

still, we are heading into 2022, and they are "working on a fix" with no permanent solution ready yet.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, they need to pull the plug on the Bolt, and bury it.


What. A. Mess GM is in. If they blow the "all new" Ultium thing too (won't surprise me if they do), get ready for another bailout.
 
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I just read they have a fix for the Bolt starting in October.

But, you can still only charge to 80 percent. And they are installing new battery watch software.

It appears to me they haven't fully solved this. Not confidence inspiring.
 
mimico_polak said:
‘Shift to Park’ fixed under warranty. Had to point the dealership to the service bulletin and they didn’t believe me (or the PDF I showed them).

But all done.
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Lucky you. Did they replace just the switch (what the TSB mentions is covered) or the whole unit? Dealer did the latter for me and it was not covered.
 
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