Chevy Bolt Compensation
People who bought a Chevy Bolt EV who had their batteries replaced. Many of these people couldn’t park their cars in their own garages.
They had to park away from everyone else for quite a while. Finally, they’re being compensated.
Settlement Details and Payouts
In court, General Motors and LG Chem, who manufactured the batteries that go into these vehicles, have finally agreed to pay owners of Chevy bolts and Chevy Bolt EUVs for the massive inconvenience that they went through.
But to be honest, the payment is pretty small. The Bolt battery saga debacle cost General Motors and LG, came around $2 billion to fix this problem.
I don’t think they’ve actually fixed all the batteries yet because what they ended up doing, they replaced half the batteries, and for the second half of them, they didn’t replace them.
They just installed a software thing where the software essentially doesn’t do anything other than identify whether or not the car is going to have a battery fire or have a defect.
So a lot of owners are not too happy about that. They’re getting a higher sum, a higher payout. So if your battery wasn’t replaced, you get a $1,400 payout.
If your battery was replaced, you get a $700 payout. a lot of people are not too happy who didn’t get their batteries replaced.
General Motors and LG Chem’s Response
Gm obviously wanted to avoid paying that fee. It’s a huge expense for General Motors and LG Chem.
Like I said, $2 billion between the two of them. I think it was actually more than $2 billion. It might have been closer to $2.4 billion.
The sum was enormous. a judge had not approved the settlement which plaintiffs, attorneys said in their filing was unopposed by defendants, General Motors and LG.
So the plaintiffs who lodged this claim, they are the ones that ask for this pretty small fee. I think that’s completely reasonable.
I probably should have been paid a bit more than that, I think, for the inconvenience.
$700 for people who have their battery placed, $1400 for people who have not had their battery pack replaced.
Attorneys also asked a judge to approve a proposed settlement class who would receive their awards from a common 150 million settlement fund.
Background on Bolt Battery Recall
Gm, LG Energy Solution and LG Electronics have agreed to a settlement with plaintiffs to resolve class action litigation related to the Bolt EV battery recall.
A GM, General Motors’ spokesperson has said, as a result, Bolt owners who have received a battery replacement or who have installed the latest advanced diagnostic software may qualify for compensation.
Gm thanks its loyal bulk customers for their patience. In 2021, GM and LG Chem identified two claimed rare manufacturing defects in the battery cell that contributed to these fires.
The fires weren’t caused when you had a crash. They were just caused mysteriously when cars were just sitting there doing nothing in dealerships.
Status of Bolt Battery Replacements
Later that year, the automaker expanded a recall to cover more than 110,000 vehicles in the US or all Bolt model years from 2017 to 2022.
General Motors offered to replace all battery modules in 2017 to 2019, bolts, but only defective ones on newer cars.
The software installed on the newer bolts was intended to diagnose abnormalities and identify which vehicles needed battery module replacements.
So essentially that means you could be driving in around a car where GM said, oh, no, we’re not going to replace the battery.
We’re just going to put software in there to see if you have a lemon. You might have a Lemon, we don’t know.
The software will tell us at some point. Hopefully your car doesn’t burn before that happens.
About 22,600 Bolt owners and leases will be eligible to receive $1,400 if they receive the software update, according to the filing.
Future of Chevy Bolt and Bolt EV Models
Now, apparently, only 17,841 Bolt owners actually got the update. That means 5,000 Bolt owners are just driving the car around with the old battery pack without getting the update or without having the battery replaced.
If you’re going to buy a Chevy Bolt or a Bolt EV, don’t buy one unless you know for sure it’s had at least one of those two things done, had the battery replaced or had that software thing installed.
And 5,000 vehicles, bolts, getting around in the US, haven’t had either of those things done to them.
About 80,000 people who have had their Bolt battery in place will receive $700. Gm began replacing batteries on old bolts in October of 2021, and court documents show 68,565 batteries had been replaced as of the second of April.
So not all bolts have been fixed yet. And this is because some owners are still waiting for battery replacements.
This settlement is an excellent result for our clients and the class, and goes hand in hand with the battery and software remedies that General Motors and LG have already rolled out, said Ryan McDermott, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
So the plaintiffs seem happy. The Bolt EV and EUV built on GM’s older battery architecture, have been discontinued. You can’t buy this car new anymore.
A second-generation Bolt redesigned onto GM’s Ultium EV platform is expected to hit the market in limited numbers in 2025.