Photo: Steve Lagreca (Shutterstock)
General Motors has issued another recall for its Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle (EV) line—this time for 140,000 of them because “the carpet could catch fire after a crash where a front seat belt pretensioner deploys,” according to a report from Reuters. The recall includes about 120,000 cars in the United States and 20,000 in Canada. The affected Chevrolet Bolt EVs are from 2017 to 2023.
GM’s announcement to owners and media outlets was released on Tuesday, but no public announcement has been released yet. They did not report how many fire incidents have happened as a result of the recall, only categorizing it as being “rare instances.”
The Chevrolet Bolt debuted in 2016 as GM’s first electric vehicle. While it’s not GM’s only EV anymore, it is considered one of the most affordable EVs in the market at around $25,000. The car has had a fair amount of recalls, with a massive recall in 2021 in which GM told every owner to bring their Bolts in for a battery replacement because of a fire risk. The recall halted production of Bolts until this April.
Why is the Chevrolet Bolt being recalled?
The Bolts have seatbelt pretensioners—devices built into the seat belt that tighten when a crash occurs—whose exhaust gases can come in contact with carpet fibers after a crash and potentially spark a fire in the car. While rare, GM decided to act upon the fire danger to avoid incidents.
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Instead of replacing the pretensioners, GM is asking owners to bring in their EVs to install install metal foil along the carpet near the pretensioner exhaust to shield it and eliminate the chance of ignition. Some vehicles will get a pretensioner cover, according to a report from USA Today.
If you want to know whether your Bolt was affected by the recall, you can use the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s tool or search on GM’s website. Owners should be notified by GM in January if they were affected by the recall. If you have questions, you can call Chevy Customer Service at 1-800-222-1020. This GM recall number is N222383790.
