Chevrolet Bolt EV, EUV Production Stopped Until At Least February

The previous time frame for the production shutdown has now been extended by a month.

By: Andrei Nedelea

Dec 20, 2021 at 9:41am ET

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GM really wants to address the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV battery issue properly, before putting the two models back into production. The Lake Orion Assembly plant in Michigan has not produced a single example of either since August of this year (when the recall was issued) and after previously announcing a halt of production until January 28, GM has now extended that into February.

Some 141,000 vehicles are subject to this recall and back in September we reported that GM and battery pack supplier LG Chem were putting in extra effort into jointly finding a solution. Chevrolet did briefly restart electric Bolt production, but it was only for two weeks in the first half of November and then its production line was again idled.

The Detroit News quotes GM spokesman Dan Flores, who in a statement said that

GM has notified employees at Orion Assembly the plant will extend downtime through February 2022 to continue prioritizing recall repairs. We will continue to inform employees at the appropriate time of any additional production schedule adjustments, as we continue to focus on battery module replacements.

The source also points out that GM has been

Prioritizing the output of new battery modules for the recalled EVs instead of making new vehicles.

Battery pack production was actually restarted one month after the recall was announced and GM is not putting any of its other electric models on hold. The company recently started delivering the very first examples of its new GMC Hummer EV electric pickup and there are numerous reports of other BEVs that are currently being worked on for brands like Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC or Buick.