General Motors on Friday issued the second recall in less than a year for its 2017-2019 Chevy Bolt EVs after some of the cars that had already been repaired still erupted into flames.
Officials with GM and LG, which supplies the electric car’s battery cells, have identified a second “rare manufacturing defect” that increases the risk of a fire, the Detroit-based automaker said.
The recall covers about 69,000 cars globally, including almost 51,000 in the US.
GM said it will replace the defective battery in the recalled cars at no cost to customers.
The company asked that owners put a 90 percent state of charge limit on the cars until the recall fix can be implemented.
The announcement comes a week after GM and federal regulators urged owners to park the Chevy Bolts outside and away from their home due to the risk of fire.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said last week that the battery cell packs in the 2017-2019 Bolt EVs “have the potential to smoke and ignite internally.”
The fire could then spread to the rest of the vehicle and cause a structure fire if the vehicle is parked inside a garage or near a house, the NHTSA warned.
The federal regulator opened an investigation into the matter in October and issued a recall for the 51,000 affected cars in the US in November.
But the agency acknowledged last week that it’s now aware of two separate incidents of fires in the electric cars that had already “received the recall remedy.”
One of the fires occurred while the car was charging at the home of a Vermont state lawmaker earlier this month, CNBC reported.