The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urged owners of select Model Year 2017-2019 Chevrolet Bolt vehicles to park their cars outside and away from homes due to the risk of fire.

Owners of these vehicles should park their vehicles outside away from homes and other structures immediately after charging and should not leave their vehicles charging overnight, according to General Motors.

The vehicles that should be parked outside are those that were originally recalled in November 2020 for the potential of an unattended fire in the high-voltage battery pack underneath the backseat’s bottom cushion. The affected vehicles’ cell packs have the potential to smoke and ignite internally, which could spread to the rest of the vehicle and cause a structure fire if parked inside a garage or near a house. This recall affected 50,932 MY 2017-19 Chevrolet Bolt vehicles.

There have been two recent Chevrolet Bolt EV fire incidents in vehicles that were remedied as part of the November 2020 safety recall.

General Motors had earlier said that it had developed a remedy to complete the safety recall. As part of the service procedure, dealers utilize GM-developed diagnostic tools to identify potential battery anomalies and replace battery module assemblies as necessary. The remedy also includes the installation of advanced onboard diagnostic software into these vehicles that, among other things, has the ability to detect potential issues related to changes in battery module performance before problems can develop.

Customers need to visit participating Chevrolet Bolt EV dealers to have the remedy service procedure performed. When the vehicle is updated with the new software, the 90% state of charge limitation is removed, so that the battery is returned to its previous maximum charging capacity.

Customers of 2019 model year Chevrolet Bolt EVs were able to have this remedy performed starting on 29 April and customers who own 2017 and 2018 model year Bolt EVs were eligible to have the remedy performed starting 26 May.

GM is making this diagnostic software standard in the 2022 Bolt EV and EUV, as well as future GM electric vehicles.

NHTSA and GM say the Bolts should be parked outside regardless of whether the interim or final recall remedies have been completed.

NHTSA opened an investigation (PE 20-016) in October 2020, continues to evaluate the information received, and is looking into these latest fires.