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GM had a hard time looking after the Chevrolet Bolt. No automaker wants to build a random car that catches fire, let alone sell 100,000, all of which have to be called up for repair. This is the situation GM finds itself in, however, and it only gets more awkward from there. The company has now advised several owners to park 50 feet from other cars due to the risk of fire, reports CNBC.
First reported by Bloomberg News, advice is given to customers who call GM regarding parking their cars in parking lots or parking structures. GM spokesman Dan Flores said in an email that “in an effort to reduce potential damage to nearby structures and vehicles in the rare event of a potential fire, we recommend parking on the top floor or on an outdoor patio and park 50 feet or more away from another vehicle. That’s understandable, given that a recent Bolt fire in an outdoor parking lot resulted in the destruction of a neighboring Maserati and Hyundai in California.
Earlier in the recall, NHTSA’s advice was that owners should park outside, well away from other vehicles and structures. However, for many who live in apartments or in areas without street parking, this is simply not an option.
Of course, 50 feet is a long way; a total of 15.24 French stallions, in fact. Typical American parking spaces are 9 feet wide, which means owners are advised to leave 6 parking spaces between their vehicle and any other car. This might hardly be achievable in some subscribed parking lots, but it assumes that owners would be able to somehow block surrounding parking spaces within a radius of the vehicle, not just left and right as the bolts are not not picky about which directions they throw burning debris. It is also necessary to take into account the damage to the structure itself.
Perhaps the owners could leave a sign on their vehicle that read “If you can read this your car is too close because mine could catch on fire”. However, it’s worth noting that despite GM’s recall of all Bolts built from 2017 to model year 2022, we still don’t see the cars blazing on a daily basis. The automaker has officially confirmed 12 fires, although there are more unconfirmed incidents in the wild.
With the issue being caused by faulty cells produced by supplier LG Chem, GM hopes to receive a refund from the company to help pay for the recall process. GM has already spent $ 800 million on the recall and expects to spend at least $ 1 billion more since it expanded to cover all bolts built through the 2022 model years. Notably, LG Chem was able to come to an agreement to cover 70% of the costs of a recall involving its batteries by Hyundai, so GM will likely pursue a similar figure. The companies are working together to speed up production of new cells to replace those for existing bolts, and GM plans to notify customers as soon as parts become available.
We likely haven’t heard the end of this recall as it will take some time for GM to deal with any cars that need battery replacements. However, we hope that the lessons learned by GM and their battery manufacturing partner will avoid such costly problems in the future.
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