In June 2017, months after General Motors Co. beat Tesla Inc. to market with an affordable, long-range electric vehicle, it took out full-page newspaper ads touting how long its Chevrolet Bolt could travel between charges. The tagline: “Begin a long-distance relationship, now.”
Four years later, the long-distance relationship between GM and its battery partner, LG Energy Solution, is being tested like never before. At issue: who will pick up a roughly US$1 billion tab.
Rather than recall, GM could just change the name to Firebird & claim the fires are a feature, not a bug!!
Rebranding to a new disposable car.
Use once and let the fire dispose of the remains.
I better not suggest it, the profits may be too tempting…
Lightning Bolt?
Just add a new sticker before the ‘BOLT’
So … GM recalls EVERY Bolt for a “rare” battery defect? I don’t think so. The entire battery design is bad. Every ONE of the Bolt batteries is a time bomb ticking away on its extension cord.
one might assume that they are using this “rare” battery defect to cover up a different battery defect that no one has caught yet.
of course, it could just be a matter of numbers, that the defect affects 1 in 2500 cells, and each Bolt has approximately 2170 cells in their packs…
There was plenty of warning that this was a serious issue. LI batteries nearly killed development of the 787 Dreamliner. They were a huge issue of laptops spontaneously catching fire while people were using them. An entire garage full of electric buses exploded and burned to the ground from battery malfunction, and at least one Australian battery storage utility-scale system caught fire and burned to the ground. At some point it needs to be acknowledged that this technology cannot be made safe for its desired transport purposes.
Who will pick up the $1billion tab? Such a stupid question. When government subsidies are involved, the answer is the same as always. “The Taxpayers!”