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An exclusive in-depth account of the most recent Chevy Bolt EV fire, plus what you can do to stay safe

40976 Views 233 Replies 58 Participants Last post by EV Engineering, Aug 23, 2021

Sean Graham

Discussion Starter · May 7, 2021

The recent Chevy Bolt fire on May 1, 2021 occurred just days after the “final fix” for the fire issue was announced. We sat down with the owner to discuss what happened, tell the inside story, and try to find some answers…

Join me with an exclusive that walks you through the morning of that fateful fire, and a brief analysis on the situation, plus things that you can do to keep yourself safe.

Exclusive: The latest Chevy Bolt fire reveals troubling pattern that owners should be aware of

Details emerge from the Chevy Bolt fire on May 1st in Ashburn, Virginia. We tell the owner's story and recommend how you can reduce your risk.

electrek.co

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NY-Rob

· #7 · May 7, 2021

"The car had not been driven that morning, and it was unplugged at around 75% charge."
"The car was unplugged at the time of the fire and had been for several hours."

Yikes! What else could an owner be expected to do to ensure reasonable safety?

If it gets to the point where you have to have a long checklist of "do's and don'ts" for using and charging the Bolt that will be terrible for GM.

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NY-Rob

· #8 · May 7, 2021

I wonder if GM has telemetry data from OnStar regarding times/miles driven and state of charge for this particular vehicle?

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NY-Rob

· #13 · May 7, 2021 (Edited)

The sad fact is that GM investigated using LiFePO4 cells for the Gen1 Volt battery but then went with li-Ion instead. All their subsequent batteries have all been Li-Ion, not the much safer LiFePO4 chemistries. If they had gone with LiFePO4 from the start, quite possibly none of these fires would have happened.

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NY-Rob

· #27 · May 7, 2021

MDBolt said:
Thanks for posting, @Telek . This is really why I have zero faith in "software" fixes, that are essentially just smoke and mirrors (pun intended). How does software get ahead of something like this in this situation??

Was just considering the same thing.... I have made a few li-ion battery packs from 4 to 24 li-ion cells (all with BMS) and when I have seen bad cells one thing they do is charge with the same current and voltage as surrounding cells, but unlike surrounding cells... they get hot, sometimes very hot. How is a BMS without individual cell temp sensors going to see that?

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Exclusive: The latest Chevy Bolt fire reveals troubling pattern that owners should be aware of

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