
Fearing battery fires after recalls, people are selling their Chevy Bolt EVs back to GM
CNN
After Bart Schoenfeld's Chevrolet Bolt EV was recalled for the second time, he'd had enough.
GM had warned that some of the cars could have a manufacturing defect that might cause them to catch fire. For safety's sake, the automaker recommended Bolt owners restrict their use of the car to avoid straining the batteries, and park them away from their homes.
In an electric car, if one battery cell has a defect that allows its stored energy to be released in an uncontrolled way, that can cause it to heat up. That heat can, in turn, damage other cells nearby causing them to release their energy as heat, too. This can start a chain reaction known "thermal runaway" leading to a fire. Still, electric car fires are rare compared to fires in gasoline powered cars.













