Chevy Bolt first drive

Id say over 90% of the cells are just fine. I hope they do make it into the open market.

I am comfortable cycle-testing these to weed out the sketchy cells, then use them as a home-power backup in a steel shed that 10 feet away from my house.

The more scared the uninformed are, the cheaper the cells will be.
 
I am actually surprised by this and thought LG had some good cells.

I think with current battery technology, we are unable to make a reliably safe and stable cell. The case for mass electrification of cars rests on developing safer cells and better production techniques.

I think we are close to seeing these better cells come out and think these will re-ignite the fire of EV DIY.
 
Oops I just bought a 2022. I thought they had fixed the problem causing the fires. Oh well. I really like the car, don't have a garage anyway, wasn't planning on charging to 100% for daily use, and it hasn't caught fire yet.
 
spinningmagnets said:
Id say over 90% of the cells are just fine.
I suspect more like 99.9%+ of the cells are fine . !..
Even then that would suggest a defect rate of 1 in 1000 which might imply a defective cell in every 3rd Bolt !
If that were true, im sure we would have seen many more issues than the handful reported
Even if they recycle the cells by scrapping , and reusing the raw materials, that is a huge waste of industrial resources and energy especially when you are trying to promote a “green” project and corporate image. :shock:
 
Want to hear about problems with EV's and not blow it up into something it is not. It will take quite a while for people to get used to them.

Remember when Gasoline would lite from a spark from 20+ feet away before they learned to control this with chemicals and teach people not to smoke around the gas pumps.
 
Another one bites the dust, a 2017.

“I normally charge at the mall where I work. It’s a level 2 ChargePoint charger. I charge to about 85% on regular days and very rarely charge to full. (Happened maybe twice) I would then immediately unplug and drive home about 20 mile drive. I would charge once every 5 days depending on how much I drove. This particular instance the car had about 34 miles left”

https://preview.redd.it/xa7tzxixlkk71.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a330ca958b88e7eaeb5370f6de8ad9131cb3bb7d

GM says no more EVs until LG can provide good cells. Could be many months.

https://electrek.co/2021/07/28/everything-we-know-about-the-chevy-bolt-ev-fires/
 
ZeroEm said:
Want to hear about problems with EV's and not blow it up into something it is not. It will take quite a while for people to get used to them..
:shock: ...obviously Bolt owners and GM, do not think it is “something it is not” !
Do you expect people to get used to their EV randomly burning to the ground ?
This is not an owner/operator education “get used to them”. issue..its a major technical fault that has to be resolved.
I am surprised that it is still possible to insure a Bolt... (or other EVs using these LG cells)..against fire damage or personal injury !
And worringly, i keep thinking of the Boeing problem with the YUASA Li stand by battery pack in the 777 that had a similar habit of randomly burning,... but despite the millions of dollars and resources devoted to solving the problem ( also blamed on a manufacturing defect ?)..the eventual solution was to enclose the pack inside a fireproof container , vented to outside the fueselage !
I was surprised that solution was acceptable for a passenger aircraft, ..but i do not think it would be acceptable to consumers buying EVs with other options......(or insurance companies) !
 
Warren said:
Another one bits the dust, a 2017.
.........
GM says no more EVs until LG can provide good cells. Could be many months.

https://electrek.co/2021/07/28/everything-we-know-about-the-chevy-bolt-ev-fires/
Have GM confirmed they are halting production and sales ?
The electrek article is not clear on that point.
And i have not checked, but are there reports of other EV with these LG cells, also burning ?
 
by Hillhater » Aug 31 2021 7:07pm

:shock: ...obviously Bolt owners and GM, do not think it is “something it is not” !
Do you expect people to get used to their EV randomly burning to the ground ?
This is not an owner/operator education “get used to them”. issue..its a major technical fault that has to be resolved.
I am surprised that it is still possible to insure a Bolt... (or other EVs using these LG cells)..against fire damage or personal injury !
And worringly, i keep thinking of the Boeing problem with the YUASA Li stand by battery pack in the 777 that had a similar habit of randomly burning,... but despite the millions of dollars and resources devoted to solving the problem ( also blamed on a manufacturing defect ?)..the eventual solution was to enclose the pack inside a fireproof container , vented to outside the fueselage !
I was surprised that solution was acceptable for a passenger aircraft, ..but i do not think it would be acceptable to consumers buying EVs with other options......(or insurance companies) !

Your right it's not something we should get used to. Like we did with ICE that still catch on fire and blow up.
 
Hillhater said:
Have GM confirmed they are halting production and sales ?

And i have not checked, but are there reports of other EV with these LG cells, also burning ?

https://electrek.co/2021/08/31/gm-halting-bolt-ev-euv-production-until-lg-supply-defect-free-batteries/

Yes. Every maker using LG cells has had some fires. None have anywhere near the number of cars on the road as the Bolt....yet.

LG has pulled all their backup battery storage units too.

https://www.energy-storage.news/overheating-issues-prompt-recall-and-replacement-for-lg-chem-australia-battery-storage-systems/
 
it's not something we should get used to. Like we did with ICE that still catch on fire and blow up.
Most Every thing we use has a risk , cars burn, planes crash, trees fall on houses, idiots with guns shoot innocent bystanders...etc , etc....all we can do is hope to reduce the risk where possible and avoid situations where it is unacceptable.
Currently the “rate” ( fires per million), of fires in EVs is 15X greater than in ICEs !
So if ICE fires concern you,....best to stay clear of EVs !
 
Yes, i am surprised that LG did not have....and GM did not require....full traceability of cells from point of manufacture to final vehicle VIN....( and LG likewise back to raw materials sources). I understood that to be a standard industry practice in the Auto wworld ?
But we dont know for sure,..and maybe they did have full traceability ?...it is obvious that the issue has been present since 2016 at least, and if it is truely “random” and undetected by the inspection Methods used, then even the most dilligent tracking would not help. You have. To find a problem component before you can trace its source
What would have helped would be improved process capability, better process control, and a more intense sampling /inspection regime .
Fundamentaly it is a failure of process capability....equipment,processes or materials unable to produce consistant quality products.
Easy in retrospect !

Memory jolt !.... i guess this is likely the reason Hyundai did a pack recall on 60,000+ Kona EVs ?
 
Hillhater said:
Memory jolt !.... i guess this is likely the reason Hyundai did a pack recall on 60,000+ Kona EVs ?

Yes, exactly. And probably why they have now switched to SK Innovation for cells. And why Ford has switched from LG in the Mach-e, to SK Innovations for the F-150 Lightning.

And why LG split off its battery division on 12-01-20, presumably to limit liability.
 
It is very probable that one battery producer uses similar processes, the same suppliers of equipment, possibly even the same sources of materials.. so there will still be the risk of similar defects from any supplier.
GM, Ford,Hyundai, etc must all review their own internal QA and Supplier Certification proceedures, to prevent any possibility of critical defects filtering through to the consumers.
 
Reports suggest it is a defect that has been produced from various “robots” ( cell wrapping m/cs ) , in several different production plants. Implying that specific sources of the problem may be many, or that the problem may be random across numerous production locations.
If they cannot identify a single point source of ALL the defects, then there is a much more complex issue to deal with.
That would suggest a PROCESS problem , rather than an equipment defect.
....It is now reported that the defect occurred across multiple LG factories and possibly dates back to the very beginning of the Bolt’s production run in December 2016. The global fleet now totals more than 140,000 vehicles, with some 90% sold in the United States and Canada. That means these defects potentially span a massive population of 40 million pouch cells!
 
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