Hang Tight’ is not Helpful Advice
“It’s sitting outside my home like a firebomb.”
“It’s unnerving at the very least. How can we possibly put a car in our garage that might catch on fire? I don’t feel secure parking a car outside given our tree coverage.”
These are real car owners responding to the battery issues with 2017-2022 Chevrolet Bolts.

“Issues’ is probably not the right word – the batteries on these vehicles can spontaneously combust. It’s that simple – these vehicles, all with batteries manufactured by LG, can catch fire while parked.
Recalls have been issued. There is a fix but there’s also a problem – the supply chain issues so much in the news over the last six months, has slowed the availability of ‘the fix’ to a crawl. GM has been – slowly – replacing batteries on older models first. There’s no timetable for full battery replacements for all the vehicles effected.
To every Bolt owner in line, GM’s advice is to follow three steps, which should keep the cars safe until that future date when it’s their turn to get a new battery:
- Only charge the car to 90%.
- Try not to deplete the battery below ‘at least a 70-mile range.
- Do not park the car in your garage or charge it overnight.
- A defect that affects a vehicle’s use is one that prevents you from driving the vehicle as it was intended to be driven.
- A vehicle’s value is diminished when the defect means the vehicle won’t sell for the price it normally would bring – if the defect wasn’t there.
- Safety defects are defects that put the driver, passengers, and other drivers in danger.