What does total GM recall mean for Konas?

[cwerdna]

Maybe, maybe. But first GM recalled all 2017-2019 cars. Then a 2020 caught fire. So clearly they are slightly concerned with some of the 2020s.

Yes. Originally, GM and/or LG thought it was confined to Ochang, South Korea packs (all '17 and '18 + subset of '19). Subset of '19 have US batteries (and the other set have Korean batteries). Spposedly it's all US batteries for '20+ model years.

Page 3 of https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2021/RCLRPT-21V650-2919.PDF is insightful. 8/20/21 was when the recall expanded to ALL Bolt EVs and EUVs, including thru model year '22.

https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/fire-recalls-summary-and-timeline.39544/ may help.

 

[R P]

Sounds like GM is not confident at this time that LG can consistently produce defect free batteries.
https://www.freep.com/story/money/c...Is8MDMObfV2m5LLO9ZG0do0-t2kHtAYRC8hCaowyg745I

 

[KiwiME]

The recall info on one site indicates that these are Bolts that have two concurrent faults, a torn anode and folded separator. We of course believe we only have the first defect and I haven't seen a definition of the second. It's not clear how Chevy dealers will diagnose either of those.
My recent realisation is that the construction of a pouch cell is a bit random for something that relies on geometric precision for safety.

This recent article linked on the ChevyBolt.org forum aligns with my thoughts on why some batteries are failing. I doubt there's any difference in the failure modes between the Bolt and the (S. Korean made) Kona, both have LG Energy cells of course.

Hruska believes that eradicating tears and folds is a worthwhile goal but that imperfections and variations—sometimes measuring fractions of a millimeter—are relatively common. “The design of the battery system also must be resilient enough to accommodate some imperfections without catastrophic failure,” he said.

https://www.autoweek.com/news/a38252667/battery-experts-explain-chevy-bolt-fires/

 

[KiwiME]

Further to that there's an industry report on the Bolt defects, not identifying a proven root cause but giving some strong hints including what I mentioned in post #17. You need a non-free email address to download it.