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Transportation The Almighty Buck

GM Offers Chevy Bolt Owners $1,400 For Dealing With Software-Limited, Fire-Prone Batteries (electrek.co) 36

Posted by BeauHD from the but-there's-a-catch dept.
Jameson Dow reports via Electrek: As the latest step in the saga of recalled Chevy Bolts, GM is offering owners of '20-'22 Bolts early payment of $1,400 of an anticipated class action settlement in exchange for installing a piece of diagnostics software that the company says will detect whether batteries require a full replacement. [...] In June, GM announced that it would stop replacing 2020-2022 Chevy Bolt Batteries and would instead verify the integrity of the battery with software over a period of 6,200 miles in which Bolt owners were only allowed to charge their batteries to 80% or ~207 of the original EPA's 259-mile range. GM replaced most batteries on '17-'19 Bolts but then ended up offering software diagnostics instead of battery replacements to many '20-'22 model year Bolts. GM says that the software will detect which batteries actually require a fix, but the software requires 6,214 miles/10,000 km worth of driving to detect these problems, during which time charging must be limited to 80%.

This left many customers aggrieved at being promised a new battery and not receiving it, and further, at needing to wait some number of months with restricted charging before receiving a solution. Or, in the case of low-mileage customers, that 6,214 miles might even take years -- which brings up a conflict with GM's insistence that the diagnostic period be finished by March 31, 2025, in order to qualify owners for an extended warranty for a replaced battery pack. Now, GM is trying to sweeten the pot to get customers to install the "software final remedy" by offering early/upfront payment of an anticipated $1,400 class action settlement. The payment comes in the form of a Visa eRewards card that can be used for online purchases.

But you can only get this early payment if you install the "software final remedy" before December 31, 2023, and sign a legal release associated with taking the payment. If you don't, you'll have to wait for the class action to be sorted out. The compensation program only applies to owners involved in recall N212345944. If the class action settlement ends up being more than $1,400, GM says that the difference will still be paid out to owners who take advantage of this early compensation offer. As noted in The Verge's report, "[o]lder Chevy Bolt models that were made from 2017 to 2019 were initially provided 'fixes' in 2021 to keep the vehicles from catching fire, but it did not work." A different issue with the batteries appeared in 2020, "during which time at least 19 Bolts caught fire with full batteries."
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GM Offers Chevy Bolt Owners $1,400 For Dealing With Software-Limited, Fire-Prone Batteries More

GM Offers Chevy Bolt Owners $1,400 For Dealing With Software-Limited, Fire-Prone Batteries

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  • This talks about owners, what about leaseholders?

  • Sounds like a good deal to me.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      Nope, it's never a good deal.

      Free replacement of the vehicles with completely new vehicles with no built-in catches would be a good deal.

      GM has to take a hit and not get off the hook for providing insecure vehicles.

  • Attention all Taxpayers... (Score:3)

    by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @08:54PM (#63954731)

    Please remember how "supportive" your Apple-Pie-Chevrolet company is being the next time you vote for the same corruption that bailed them out before. Including entrenched executives.

    Rest assured you'll be supporting Too Big To Fail, Part Duh otherwise.

    Amazing how customers are never too big or small to get screwed.

    • Re:Attention all Taxpayers... (Score:5, Informative)

      by sysrammer ( 446839 ) on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @11:46PM (#63954871) Homepage

      My understanding is that the bailout loans were paid back with interest.

      • That's fine.

        Give me a multi-billion dollar loan and I can also pay it back with interest, and be flush with hookers and blow for the duration.

        GM circumvented the capitalist system of either going to the banks or private equity to issue the money, or selling assets to cover the costs.

        This what they ask of anyone who buys their vehicles, so...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by e3m4n ( 947977 )
        If you recall they paid their executives millions in bonuses with that bailout money along with lavish office redecorations. Everyone including POTUS was livid. It was the biggest - fuck you im getting mines - middle finger to the very people forced to pay for their bailouts. A little humility goes a long way.

      • My understanding is that the bailout loans were paid back with interest.

        Our collective reality of billions of dollars spent, is accounted for in 2008 Detroit about as well as 2023 Ukraine.

        Deficit grew by trillions quickly after the 2008 bailouts. As if "with interest" meant fuck-all.

  • Well, they lost me as a customer (Score:3)

    by marcle ( 1575627 ) on Wednesday October 25, 2023 @08:58PM (#63954735)

    And I don't even own any of their cars. This just guarantees I never will.

    • And I don't even own any of their cars. This just guarantees I never will.

      I'd buy another GM vehicle, just not any that are battery-electric. At least not any time soon.

      GM, Ford, and so many other automakers have more than 100 years of experience making ICEVs so I have plenty of confidence that whatever quirks and qualities I've seen in ICEVs from these makers in the past will continue in the future. BEVs have also been around for over 100 years but we've seen some pretty rapid development in the last 10 years that they are effectively starting over from nothing. That means th

    • Generally, EV's are the least likely to catch fire, petrol/diesel Vehicles are 60x as likely ...But Hybrids are twice as likely as petrol/diesel vehicles

      But these figures include Bolts - which account for more than half of the EV fires ...

      • petro/diesel fires are not common. Usually due to poor maintenance. EV fires on the other hand mostly occur while charging. Many people charge with a 240v charger in thier garage, carport, or driveway. Charging an EV at home poses a risk at burning someone's house down. I bet it won't be long until home insurance rates for owners of EV vehicles will spike. Not a risk I am willing to take.

        • I bet it won't be long until home insurance rates for owners of EV vehicles will spike. Not a risk I am willing to take.

          From another slashdot thread out there I was reading...it appears this is already the case for insurance rates on EVs in the UK.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          petro/diesel fires are not common. Usually due to poor maintenance. EV fires on the other hand mostly occur while charging. Many people charge with a 240v charger in thier garage, carport, or driveway. Charging an EV at home poses a risk at burning someone's house down. I bet it won't be long until home insurance rates for owners of EV vehicles will spike. Not a risk I am willing to take.

          They're extremely common. You just don't hear about them because they're so common. It's like "dog bites man" - you don't

  • It would be better if they offered to buy the damned things back.
    • They did buy back a lot of them. They made me a buyback offer on my 2021 Bolt that was almost what I paid. I turned it down only because I couldn't find a replacement car I liked. I still love the car, and it's incredibly useful even with the 80% limit on charging. I can't really fault GM's handling of the recall. They started replacing all battery packs because they didn't have a way of identifying the defective battery cells. Although I haven't read the technical details, I would guess they figured
  • Those gift cards are insult to injury. Hard to spend them due to "fraud prevention" , yeah right, and they expire too.
  • Man.. I hope owners of Chevy Bolts affected by this defect realize that this is inadequate compensation. $1,400 ?? really ??? wow. I am not tempted to purchase an EV at all. It's a huge inconvenience to own one. What if there's an emergency, no power, and the vehicle is low on charge ? Let's say there's a flash flood in the area and you need to take your family to higher ground ? Or your wife is going into labor ? Not to mention the slight chance that there is a risk of fire while charging under

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ksevio ( 865461 )

      Those all apply to ICE vehicles too. What if there's an emergency, no fuel, and the vehicle is low on gas? Let's say there's a flash flood in the area and you need to take your family to higher ground ? Or your wife is going into labor ? Not to mention the slight chance that there is a risk of fire while refueling under certain conditions.

      • My Wrangler always has at least a 1/2 tank. I refuel at 1/2 tank except when going on long road trips out to the White Mountains or whatever and also a full tank before going off road. There is NO RISK of a fire while refueling. I don't smoke. I don't keep my mobile phone on my either, it's inside the wranglers lower central cubby. I always shut off my engine before refueling. The only conditions that would raise a risk of fire while refueling is if the individual refueling their vehicle is a m

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Ksevio ( 865461 )

          Ok? My Chevy bolt always has 1/2 charge. I plug it in at home so it's always full. There's also NO RISK of a fire while charging and the chance of a fire of any kind is substantially lower than a car with fuel.

          But it's a matter of preference really. If you're uncomfortable with more modern vehicles because of misplaced safety fears then you're free to stick with your older one.

  • GM replaced 100k batteries due to less than 20 battery fires. These little cars are perfect city commuters. I'm here to say there is no reason to hate on GM. Designed in Korea in 2012 G2KCZ. Still a great car over ten years later.

    • You'd think there was a reason if it was your house that burned down while charging in the garage.

      Why is 20 ok? Why is ANY ok?

      Would you be ok if -only- 20 Nintendo systems caught fire while recharging the controllers in the living room?

      Or 20 stoves caught fire? Or 20 smart phones?

      Why is a number greater than zero ok?

      • That's out of 141,000 cars sold. That's about 14 fires per 100,000 cars. ICE cars catch fire at a rate of about 1,529 per 100,000 cars.

  • And GM is the new Ford.

    GM is not handling this 'right', or well, or fairly.

    Fun fact, Ford did not take that government bailout, they mortgaged their real estate. That doesn't make them any better, just self-sufficient. Or prideful, I duinno.

  • Recently bought a used 2020 Bolt EV Premier edition with around 14,000 miles on it, from an area Chevy dealership. (My reasoning was, it was sold cheap enough to qualify for the Federal tax credit for used EV purchases, and with that low of mileage for a 2020? It was probably one of the vehicles Chevy was forced to hold captive until a battery replacement could be done. And it only went on sale after Chevy did this new firmware update in lieu of putting a new battery pack in it, allowing dealers to put it b

  • You dropped a zero. At $14,000 we can chat, at $1,400, my responce is: Go away kid, you bother me. - W.C. Fields

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