General Motors is extending the production shutdown at the Michigan plant, where the Chevrolet Bolt is made, for another two weeks following a recall related to the battery units catching fire.
Reuters reports that the pause in production will last until at least September 24 as “a result of a battery pack shortage.” GM added that it will not resume production or sales of the Bolt until it is satisfied that the recall remedy will address the fire risk.
GM stopped production of the Chevrolet Bolt on August 30 as it sought to determine the cause of fires that are originating from the battery modules in some cars built since 2017. That shutdown was initially supposed to end on September 6. Just three days before that, though, GM said it wasn’t yet satisfied that its supplier, LG Chem, had yet become capable of building new batteries without any defects.
Read More: Chevy To Pause Bolt Production For Two Weeks After Expanding Recall
“If we took the battery stock that’s in the field right now or at a warehouse, we’re not confident that it is defect-free,” a GM spokesperson told the Detroit Free Press. “Because we are not confident that LG has the capability to build defect-free products, we’ve put the repairs on hold and we are not building new Bolts. We’re not going to start recall repairs or start building new Bolts until we’re confident LG will build defect-free products.”
Indeed, GM has reason to be cautious, since it has had to recall the Bolt twice. In July, it announced that Bolts that had already received the fix from a 2020 recall had to be recalled again. As a result, the automaker has had to widen its recall to 140,000 vehicles at a cost that is estimated to reach $1.8 billion.
GM’s spokesperson said earlier this month that it and LG Chem have hundreds of people working round the clock to find the cause of and a solution to the battery defects.
