[Dust999]

Great forum, thought I would share some info that others might find useful.

Sequence of events:

Received call from GM that the car had sent them a message that the battery has an issue, low voltage or faulty cells. They asked me to get the car to a dealer to be checked and the recall updates applied. Lost power the next day while driving, milage at 54 remaining, no warning, able to limp home as I had 0.5 of a mile to go...(whew). Took the car to the dealer, they checked it out, applied the updates, verified that a new battery is needed, sent me on my way stating that it was ok to drive the car until the new battery arrives. That was 2 weeks ago. Have been trying to get an install date from them, no luck to date. Finally got them to let me know today that they have a tracking number and they 'think' the battery will be delivered by the end of next week.

However, the current battery will only charge to a max of 154 miles after the recall updates and this has progressively worsened over the last 2 weeks. Full charge is now at 110 miles. Getting a bit concerned re range and the potential of another power loss, so asked the dealership for a loaner until they can replace.........nope, can only give me a loaner once the car is in for the replacement. Verified with them that they are ok that this is my problem dealing with the current battery and car..........(??).

That nice feeling of buying an electric car with an inherent benefit of not having to deal with a dealer that often is slowly evaporating...............................

 

[GJETSON]

Feel sympathy for you. I complain about getting short-changed on battery capacity but, so far at least, have not seen any sign of battery failure. We avoided dealing with dealers for 45 years by only buying well known, modestly priced/optioned Japanese models.

Going to GM for our EV was a real leap! So far, we appear to have missed the growing list of faulty parts.

 

[GlenandhisBolt1!]

Your dealer does not sound very 'customer friendly'. You may want to call Chevy to discuss getting a loaner sooner rather than later, esp. since your Bolt is losing battery capacity at an alarming rate. The dealer's unwillingness is puzzling, as this is a warranty repair, for which all costs should be covered by Chevy, and none carried by the dealer.

What is the build date of your Bolt? How many miles on it? Do you regularly charge the battery to 100%, or drain the battery to zero %? Do you live in an area with high or low temperatures?

 

[ai4px]

Not to get tangled up between the dealer and GM corporate, but I think the question to ask is who pays for your loaner car? It isn't the dealer's fault it takes so long to get a battery, so I understand their point of view. Might be a great time to get on the phone with GM and threaten them with bad press. Heck, whip your phone out and plaster your interaction all over facebook. In the end, the dealer may end up loaning you a car off their lot, GM should be reimbursing them for the cost of providing that car. Maybe your dealer knows who's chain to rattle in corporate?

In sum, I think the rub is who pays and IMHO that's GM not your dealer.

 

[redpoint5]

However, the current battery will only charge to a max of 154 miles after the recall updates and this has progressively worsened over the last 2 weeks. Full charge is now at 110 miles. Getting a bit concerned re range and the potential of another power loss, so asked the dealership for a loaner until they can replace.........nope, can only give me a loaner once the car is in for the replacement.

If the current range is enough to easily accomplish your trips, I'd just keep driving it. There is at least 1 cell/bank that is underperforming in your pack, and the range will be limited by that weakest link. The problem probably wasn't exposed until you drove to a relatively low state of charge. Anyhow, the bad cell isn't likely to quit unless you drive to a low range again, and even then the reduced range of the car might be protecting that weak cell from dying completely.

I'd say drive it if you can, and keep checking in with the dealer because the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

As Glen asks, we're all curious what your build date was. The common thread seems to be the early builds so far, and GM has admitted as much.

 

[bro1999]

Great forum, thought I would share some info that others might find useful.

Sequence of events:

Received call from GM that the car had sent them a message that the battery has an issue, low voltage or faulty cells. They asked me to get the car to a dealer to be checked and the recall updates applied. Lost power the next day while driving, milage at 54 remaining, no warning, able to limp home as I had 0.5 of a mile to go...(whew). Took the car to the dealer, they checked it out, applied the updates, verified that a new battery is needed, sent me on my way stating that it was ok to drive the car until the new battery arrives. That was 2 weeks ago. Have been trying to get an install date from them, no luck to date. Finally got them to let me know today that they have a tracking number and they 'think' the battery will be delivered by the end of next week.

However, the current battery will only charge to a max of 154 miles after the recall updates and this has progressively worsened over the last 2 weeks. Full charge is now at 110 miles. Getting a bit concerned re range and the potential of another power loss, so asked the dealership for a loaner until they can replace.........nope, can only give me a loaner once the car is in for the replacement. Verified with them that they are ok that this is my problem dealing with the current battery and car..........(??).

That nice feeling of buying an electric car with an inherent benefit of not having to deal with a dealer that often is slowly evaporating...............................

Yikes. Sounds like you have a rather crappy dealer. Could you give details of your Bolt (model year, mileage, production date)?

 

[Dust999]

Your dealer does not sound very 'customer friendly'. You may want to call Chevy to discuss getting a loaner sooner rather than later, esp. since your Bolt is losing battery capacity at an alarming rate. The dealer's unwillingness is puzzling, as this is a warranty repair, for which all costs should be covered by Chevy, and none carried by the dealer.

What is the build date of your Bolt? How many miles on it? Do you regularly charge the battery to 100%, or drain the battery to zero %? Do you live in an area with high or low temperatures?

Build date is 03/17. Just under 18000 miles. Always charge to 100%. Live in MA, so both high and low temps.

It's a great little car, we love it, wife will never go back to an ICE car.......(probably pending the outcome of this event......)

 

[Dust999]

Not to get tangled up between the dealer and GM corporate, but I think the question to ask is who pays for your loaner car? It isn't the dealer's fault it takes so long to get a battery, so I understand their point of view. Might be a great time to get on the phone with GM and threaten them with bad press. Heck, whip your phone out and plaster your interaction all over facebook. In the end, the dealer may end up loaning you a car off their lot, GM should be reimbursing them for the cost of providing that car. Maybe your dealer knows who's chain to rattle in corporate?

In sum, I think the rub is who pays and IMHO that's GM not your dealer.

I would agree. I would have expected GM to be getting behind this. (And all the other battery replacements). There was proactivity in letting me know there is an issue, but since that initial call....crickets (silence). Probably too much to expect them to follow up, see how things are going, monitor how the dealer is handling the situation, am I still happy with the process......( I suppose I can dream a bit..)

 

[macfisherman]

Live in MA, so both high and low temps.

Which dealership? I live in MA too. Currently using Herb Connolly in Framingham.

 

[RecessionProofDriver]

Always charge to 100%.

Sounds funny but is this wise or even recommended?

I've read people saying you should never charge to 100% unless taking a long-range trip, as it strains/degrades the battery each time you do so fully.

Something along the lines of 10%-90%, 30%-70% or 20%-80% (never too low, never too high). I'm curious because I just bought mine (2019 Model) and I don't want to get the battery started off on the wrong foot.

Thus far, I changed the max charge rate to 90% with the car controls, but all the numbers they throw around seem like voodoo to me.

 

[SparkE]

I would hope that nobody is saying "never charge to 100%" (well, the 100% the car allows you to charge, which is not *really* 100% charge on the battery).

I regularly try to keep the charge level between 35-80%, but don't get fanatic about it. About once every 4-8 weeks I still charge the car to FULL (and then leave plugged in for at least an hour) to allow for cell balancing and battery cooling (if needed). I don't know if it makes a difference to the battery or not, but it makes me feel better, so it's worth 15 or 30 seconds a day.

 

[psyflyjohn]

If you want to "go nuclear" and get some results, do a nasty review on Yelp. Dealers monitor these sites, and will contact you with some kind of settlement. I know - I've tried it with good results (the dealer called me within an hour of posting the review). We then came to an agreement and I pulled the review. It can work !

 

[Vertiformed]

Sounds funny but is this wise or even recommended?

I've read people saying you should never charge to 100% unless taking a long-range trip, as it strains/degrades the battery each time you do so fully.

Something along the lines of 10%-90%, 30%-70% or 20%-80% (never too low, never too high). I'm curious because I just bought mine (2019 Model) and I don't want to get the battery started off on the wrong foot.

Thus far, I changed the max charge rate to 90% with the car controls, but all the numbers they throw around seem like voodoo to me.

People say a lot of things.

The car is designed to be charged to 100%. GM's engineers have claimed that there would be very little observable difference between someone who charges to 100% and someone who charges to less than 100%.

Thus far there is no evidence that folks who charge to 100% (or regularly use fast chargers) are suffering worse degradation than those who charging to lower SoC. We also know that while there have been some battery failures for some people, they aren't correlated with charging to 100%, they seem to be more correlated to variation in the pack caused by a manufacturing defect. (Possibly at some point the fix might be changing out just a smaller bank of cells rather than the entire pack.)

I would claim that one reason why it doesn't make much difference is that 100,000 miles is 417 full-charge-equivalent cycles and battery wear won't be showing up after so few cycles, especially because no one, not even folks who charge to 100% are charging 100% to 0% over and over. Maybe when Bolts are up at 250,000 miles there might be an observable difference, but few of today's owners are going to be trying to get their Bolts up to that many miles — that's keeping the car for 20 years for typical drivers who drive 12,500 miles a year.

That said, if you have a 2019 Bolt and it's easy to set the “charge-to” percentage to lower, it's fine to do that if you want.

For me, the big reason not to charge all the way to “100%” (which is not truly 100% because there is room for some regen even when “full”) is to have full regen when you start out. If it happens to benefit the battery, that's cool too.

 

[Dust999]

Sounds funny but is this wise or even recommended?

I've read people saying you should never charge to 100% unless taking a long-range trip, as it strains/degrades the battery each time you do so fully.

Something along the lines of 10%-90%, 30%-70% or 20%-80% (never too low, never too high). I'm curious because I just bought mine (2019 Model) and I don't want to get the battery started off on the wrong foot.

Thus far, I changed the max charge rate to 90% with the car controls, but all the numbers they throw around seem like voodoo to me.

My view on this 'charge or not to charge to 100%' is simple. Right or wrong, scientific or not.....I'm assuming Chevy designed the thing to charge to 100% when hooked up. I'm not going to stress on correct or perceived correct 'manual' battery management. Let the car and the designed technology do that. It's a car....must be easy to use, plug in when needed, drive as required. That's why we bought it! If the battery degrades to such an extend because of me charging the thing to 100% every time, then there is a design flaw that needs to be fixed, and hopefully that will manifest itself before the 8 year warranty is up........and I will get my second new battery pack.

 

[DaV8or]

I would agree. I would have expected GM to be getting behind this. (And all the other battery replacements). There was proactivity in letting me know there is an issue, but since that initial call....crickets (silence). Probably too much to expect them to follow up, see how things are going, monitor how the dealer is handling the situation, am I still happy with the process......( I suppose I can dream a bit..)

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm waiting for a new battery pack. My dealer says 5-6 days, but we'll see. I was a bit proactive about asking for a loaner, (they call it a courtesy car) when I was on the phone with the GM rep. Then when I was at the dealer, the service writer told me that the battery was on order and that since I had asked for the courtesy car, they would arrange that. I really think you need to bug GM and not the dealer because as others have said, ultimately it's GM that will be paying, not the dealer, the dealer will be paying up front and then getting reimbursed from GM, so this means they likely need prior authorization.

My battery doesn't sound as bad as yours... yet. It has never gone into limp mode and I got 180 miles on a full charge today and was getting about 160 on hilltop. They told me it was OK to drive on, but not to let it get under 1/3 charge so that's what I'm going to do. I drove about 30 miles today and she worked perfectly.

I don't know about you, but I got phone numbers and names for GM to follow up if need be and they sent at least to customer satisfaction survey emails since they called me. I haven't done them yet because I'm lazy. So far I am not unhappy with GM or the dealer at all. Attitude subject to change... :laugh:

Again though, contact GM about your deteriorating situation and the loaner. I bet they hook you up.

 

[Dust999]

Again though, contact GM about your deteriorating situation and the loaner. I bet they hook you up.

If the dealer cannot give me an answer on an install date this week I will reach out to GM and get them involved. Let's see how it goes.

 

[Dust999]

Which dealership? I live in MA too. Currently using Herb Connolly in Framingham.

I'm at MacMulkin in Nashua.

 

[GregBrew]

If you want action, tell the dealer that the current state of affairs makes you very nervous, and that you fear for your (and your family's) safety while driving on the highway. Drop a hint that you might be reporting this to the NTSB, and that your sister-in-law is a lawyer.

 

[EV2go]

I would expect that the Bolt uses lithium-ion battery cells and this type should be recharged to 100% unless you plan to leave the car in storage for many weeks. The higher capacity battery packs are first generation and so it is not surprising that some are failing prematurely. Actually failing battery packs is a more common with EV's than with plug-in hybrids and so have much lower reliability ratings.



What is surprising is that GM has chosen to use its supply of battery packs to ship new Bolts instead of taking care of its current Bolt owners. That should give one pause if deciding whether or not to buy a Bolt or instead buy an EV from another manufacturer. It is likely to have a negative impact on resale value and someone with a bad Bolt is pretty much stuck with it until the people at GM have a surplus of battery packs and will fix the car.

 

[Dust999]

Chatted to the GM rep on Monday, he contacted the dealer re order status and progress. Coincidentally or by magic the dealer called on Tuesday letting us know that the battery had arrived.....Car went in, they gave us a loaner, got the Bolt back yesterday and all is good again.