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GM has announced it reminds us of the Chevrolet Bolt that has been made so far, including new models of electric vehicles, due to concerns that the manufacturing defects in LG’s battery-powered cars could cause a fire.
Bolt was first remembered in November after five cars that were not involved in the accident caught fire. After further investigation into the problem, Chevy recalled it second batch in July. The problem was concluded that two manufacturing defects could occur at the same time. Defects (torn anode sheet and folded separator) created short-term conditions in the affected cells. So far, the company has identified 10 fires with faulty batteries, according to one AP report.
This remember the third and final It collects 73,000 bolts from 2019 to 2022, the current model year, and has brought memory to nearly 142,000 cars, with more than 100,000 sold in the U.S. GM estimates the initial recoveries will cost $ 800 billion, and expects new ones to add $ 1 billion. GM has said it will ask LG for a refund.
To solve the problem, the automaker will replace the vehicle batteries, an expensive and time-consuming procedure. Until a substitution is made batteries they are ready and appointments for services can be scheduled. GM has advised Bolt owners to park their vehicles outside and have a battery charge status of 90% or less. The company also recommends that the calculated range not be less than 70 kilometers. GM says it is working with LG Chem to increase replacement cell production.
Follow-up of the problem
The faulty batteries were initially in an LG Chem plant in Ochang, South Korea, and the companies believed the problem was in that plant. But a fire in Chandler, Arizona, a few weeks ago, with the 2019 Bolt, led researchers to expand their scope, revealing that there were also problems with batteries made at other LG factories.
GM and LG Chem are partners in a new multi-billion dollar joint venture manufacture Ultium batteries which will create new ones electric vehicles By the hand of the Detroit automaker. The company has announced two $ 2.3 billion battery factories in Ohio and Tennessee, and will have the first set to begin production next year.
GM initially partnered with LG Chem for high-voltage batteries in 2008, when the automaker chose to supply packages for the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. At the time, it was believed that GM had selected the Korean company because of its track record in a relatively new field of lithium-ion batteries. It was probably the right choice, as one of the contract’s competitors, the A123, suffered a black eye a few years later when its batteries were in charge of a chain of hybrid Fisker Karma plug-in hybrids.
But LG Chem’s experience and manufacturing skills have also not immunized it from high-stakes mistakes. “Batteries are hard,” Greg Less, technical director of the University of Michigan’s Battery Lab, told me another article. “If they weren’t tough, everyone would.”
In recent years, battery manufacturers have struggled to balance their competitive needs with cost, stability, and performance in developing new chemicals. Many lithium-ion batteries in cars use cobalt to maintain stability while charging and discharging. But cobalt is expensive, and most of it is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country known for its poor human rights history and poor mining conditions. Electrochemists have been working to reduce the amount of cobalt used by exchanging it with nickel, which also has the advantage of increasing energy density. Unfortunately, high nickel batteries are more prone to fire.
GM and LG have not released details on Bolt’s battery chemistry, but its components are believed to be NMC 622, or six parts nickel, two parts manganese and two parts cobalt. It’s similar to what other automakers use. There have been a lot of memories lately when motorists work on the kinks in the battery supply chain—Ford, Hyundai, and BMW they have been remembered lately by all vehicles. To date, these memories are smaller than those of GMs, and their causes range from manufacturing errors to software problems.
More fires?
Although EVs include high-fire headlines, it is not clear whether EVs ignite more frequently than internal combustion engine vehicles. Earlier this month, Tesla has released an image report claiming that fossil fuel vehicles are 11 times more likely than Tesla cars (measured by fires per thousand miles traveled). On the other hand, 2019 data The London Fire Brigade suggests that plug-in cars catch more fire than ICE vehicles (0.1 per cent vs. 0.04% of city-registered cars).
While GM continues to invest in electrification, the company clearly understands the need to move quickly to correct the problem. “We are working with our suppliers and manufacturing teams on how to accelerate battery capacity instead of the module we will be recalling,” wrote GM spokesman Dan Flores CNBC in remembrance of last month. “These teams have been working on this issue for 24 hours.”
This story first appeared Ars Technica.
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