Usually, the battery is the first part people think of when talking about the risk of electric vehicle fires. However, this case is not related to the battery.
The electric vehicle division of General Motors Corporation (GM) has been "on and off" for much of last year because a fault in the battery system caused a fire in the Chevrolet Bolt. Now, Bolt cars from 2017 to 2023 are being recalled because of the risk of fire but not the battery.
In this case, the fire risk does not come from the battery pack or because the Bolt is an electric vehicle, but from the seat belts and surrounding floor mats.
Hundreds of thousands of electric cars can burn out due to an unexpected error - 1
GM has recorded 3 cases of floor carpet fires near the seat belt tensioner of Chevrolet Bolt cars after an accident (Photo: Chevrolet).
GM must recall about 140,000 Chevrolet Bolt EVs in North America; including 111,242 in the US. However, the American automaker said only 1% of the above vehicles actually have problems.
Bolt electric vehicles manufactured between July 26, 2016 and October 25, 2022 are equipped with seat belt tensioners. In some cases, records submitted to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that the tensioner exhaust pipe can send sparks into the floor mats on the B-pillar, causing a fire.
After receiving information about a Bolt car burning after an accident in which fire broke out from a position below the B-pillar, the American automaker opened an investigation into this issue in October, and the results showed that Found the cause to be the seat belt tensioner.
GM's solution is to install a metal plate to prevent the risk of fire.
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