General Motors announced that they will push back production of new Chevrolet Bolt’s until late January 2022. In the meantime, the company will continue to focus on making replacement batteries for existing Chevrolet Bolts still on recall.
The company noted in a statement that the Bolt production line at the Orion assembly plant in Michigan will remain shut down through the week of January 24, 2022.
However, there is a possibility that the shutdown could be extended past late January. This is the fourth time GM has extended the production shutdown, which was originally planned to only last until mid-September
The lack of production does put GM in a bit of a strange situation. The Bolt is presently the only EV model the automaker offers in the United States, and they are not selling them.
However, this lack of an EV options will not last long. GM is planning to launch several models into the US market in the coming months.
This includes the GMC Hummer EV, which is expected to begin deliveries this month.
GM recalled the Chevrolet Bolt EV back in November 2020 after several reported fires. The battery supplier, LG, would later agree to cover the recall cost, which equates to roughly $2 billion.
As per the recall, Chevrolet replaces all batteries on existing Bolt EVs. To support the recall, LG and Chevrolet produced a new defect-free battery which began installing in Bolts as of November 2021.
