As the "fix" was announced just a few days ago (and it's only for 2019s at the moment), highly unlikely it was applied to this Bolt. Definitely bad optics though, especially with news of the "fix" just hitting the various major news outlets.
That was the temporary fix that reduced max charge capacity to 90-95%. The "new" fix restores capacity back to 100% with additional software monitoring safeguards, whatever those are. Who knows if the owner of that Bolt even got the 1st one done. I'm guessing not, but we'll see.
It appears that according to a first responder,
It appears that according to a first responder,
"A Tesla was leaving the development as we were approaching the entrance. It seems safe to assume that as the Tesla drove by the non-Tesla, it somehow ignited the battery in the non-Tesla by osmosis. We think the Tesla was also on Autopilot at the time as it hopped the curb as we passed. The non-Tesla model name is being withheld until further evidence refutes our opinion on the matter at which time most will have forgotten all about this unfortunate event where yet again, a Tesla wreaks havoc."
There are definitely a non-zero sum of affected Bolt owners that haven't gotten the first update for whatever reason.
Based on how aggressive GM is with sending notices, and how easy it is. (People can just set to hill top reserve, or target charge level, mode on their own if they didn't want to bother taking it to a dealer to get the software updated.)
As logical and likely your reasoning, it's still not fair to assume the worst until the dust settles. There's certainly the chance that this unfortunate event is the result of owner ignorance, either willful or clueless. Regardless, it's a setback for GM primarily but the entire EV community will suffer collateral damage.
I'm not gloating, I'm responding to the information at hand with my thoughts/opinions. I thought we were allowed to have discussions and do that.
Sorry for the confusion but I wasn’t implying you were gloating like the non-Tesla fanatics did for years. I was more trying to point out that making assumptions before all the facts could lead to the wrong conclusion. Not unlike the driverless Texas Tesla.
The Hyundai batteries are not the same. The LG batteries in the Hyundai cars and buses are from a LG factory in China. That factory produced batteries that had a specific mechanical defect. Bolt EV batteries are either from South Korea or Michigan and don't share the same defect.
I don't think it would be that bad, just like it isn't for Hyundai. More than likely they would pass it off as something like: "look at what happened when we out sourced something so critical; this is why we started over and developed our Ultium Battery technology."
It appears that according to a first responder,
"A Tesla was leaving the development as we were approaching the entrance. It seems safe to assume that as the Tesla drove by the non-Tesla, it somehow ignited the battery in the non-Tesla by osmosis. We think the Tesla was also on Autopilot at the time as it hopped the curb as we passed. The non-Tesla model name is being withheld until further evidence refutes our opinion on the matter at which time most will have forgotten all about this unfortunate event where yet again, a Tesla wreaks havoc."
The Bolt cells at issue here were all made in the South Korea factory. That’s why only 2017-2018 Bolts plus some 2019 Bolts are subject to the new software update. Other 2019 Bolts and all 2020 and later cars have cells made in Michigan (which has a somewhat different supply chain) and are not thought to have the problem (whatever the root cause is).
Interesting article. I was a bit worried about battery fires (I guess because they are a danger we're not yet used to hearing about) but this article indicates that gasoline powered cars are 10x more likely to catch fire, which is reassuring. Do other studies support this figure?
