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Exactly one year ago, Tesla had its first annual “Battery Day,” a flashy event at which Elon Musk announced the company’s fabled 4680 battery. Musk claims it will deliver much higher performance at much lower costs...eventually.
Fast forward to now, and it’s GM’s batteries making headlines—albeit for reasons more bittersweet than braggadocious. The company’s months-long Chevy Bolt battery-fire saga may finally be over (or, at least, solved for the near future).
Let’s recap: Spontaneous combustion is a real issue for battery-powered EVs, as GM’s Chevrolet Bolt EVs have been demonstrating for months. Globally, at least thirteen of the vehicles—which differed in year and model—have suddenly caught fire due to a battery manufacturing issue. At the center of it all was LG Chem, GM’s battery supplier.
- After months of pressure, GM announced a recall of Chevy Bolts in late August, which will cover all model years and reportedly cost the company $1.8 billion. A total of ~140,000 cars were recalled.
So what happened? A perfect storm of two manufacturing defects: a torn anode and folded separator, the company announced Monday. In order to generate a fire, both defects must be present in the same battery cell.
After identifying the issue, LG overhauled its manufacturing and quality assurance processes at battery plants in Michigan, then added capacity to catch up after the period of decreased production. Vehicle production, which has been paused since August 23, should resume next month, and LG will start shipping replacement batteries in mid–October.
Looking ahead: GM will add diagnostic software in current and future models to flag potential battery abnormalities.