On Friday, March 22, 2019, the signage on display outside the General Motors Co. Orion assembly plant is on display. in Orion Township, Michigan, USA.
Jeff Kowalsky | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DETROIT – General Motors extends downtime at a Michigan plant that produces its Chevrolet Bolt EV, as it works with battery supplier LG Chem to fix manufacturing defects that cause fires in some cars, leading to a mass withdrawal to solve the problem.
The Detroit automaker said Thursday that the Orion Assembly will go down in the weeks of Sept. 13-20. The plant has been closed since August 23 as a result of the shortage of batteries related to the withdrawal.
A GM spokesman confirmed on Thursday that officials are continuing to work with LG Chem to correct the problems and increase production of the new modules.
Manufacturing problems occurred at LG Battery Solution plants in South Korea and Michigan. GM said the problems involve two “rare manufacturing defects”, a torn anode tab and a folded separator, which when present in the same battery cell increase the risk of fire.
The carmaker has confirmed fires in at least 12 vehicles. The automaker last month asked owners to change vehicle settings to reduce the risk of fire as part of the recall. One of the most recent fires occurred last week with a 2017 Bolt EV parked in Sacramento, California.
GM last month extended the first record of select model years to all Bolt EV vehicles, including a larger recently released version of the car known as the Bolt EUV. The automaker expects to spend about $ 1.8 billion to replace potentially defective vehicle battery modules.
GM said it is making reimbursement commitments for LG Chem.
Vermont State Police released this photo of the 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV that caught fire on July 1, 2021 on the driveway of Democrat State Representative Timothy Briglin.
Vermont State Police
Additional downtime at the Orion Assembly was included as part of a production update Thursday by GM on the continuing shortage of semiconductor chips. The shortage of parts has caused car manufacturers to sporadically reduce vehicle production globally throughout this year.
As part of the update, GM confirmed that production of its full-size tablets will return to normal next week after a week of inactivity. It also extended previously announced downtime at plants in Michigan, Missouri and Mexico, confirming plans to restart production at other facilities later this month.
GM expects the parts problem to reduce U.S. vehicle production by about 100,000 vehicles during the second half of the year compared to the first six months. The company it does not publish production data, but sold about 1.3 million vehicles during the first half of the year in North America.