General Motors is facing a new class-action lawsuit in Canada over allegations that it knew the battery packs in the Chevy Bolt EV and Chevy Bolt EUV compact cars were defective.
This lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia by a plaintiff who owns both a 2017 and a 2018 model year Bolt EV. The plaintiff claims GM has been aware of potential defects with the Chevy Bolt EV’s battery pack “since at least 2018,” and knowingly marketed and sold affected vehicles anyways. The automaker recalled all 140,000 examples of the Bolt EV and the closely related Bolt EUV last summer after it received numerous reports of owners of the vehicle’s battery packs suddenly overheating and/or catching fire.
This lawsuit also claims GM purposefully wasted time by attempting to fix the Bolt battery problems via a software update despite knowing the problems would require a battery replacement. These software updates changed some of the operating software for the battery management system in the vehicle, limiting its capacity to 90 percent and reducing the chances of it suddenly catching fire. The automaker also developed software that it said would be able to “diagnose potential issues with the battery packs early and restore 100 percent charge capability,” before later committing to replacing affected vehicles’ batteries. The battery fires have since been traced back to a problem wherein a torn anode tab and a folded separator are located within the same battery cell.
“GM and GM Canada were enriched by the inflated prices of the Class Vehicle and the delayed recall which resulted in increased revenues for GM and GM Canada,” this lawsuit also claims, as quoted by Car Complaints.
This class-action was filed on behalf of all Canadian consumers who purchased or leased a 2017 through 2022 model year Chevy Bolt EV and/or a 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV. GM is also facing similar lawsuits in Canada over the Chevy Bolt EV and Bolt EUV battery recall, including one filed in the Northern District of California and another filed in the Eastern District of Michigan.
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