GM is recalling Chevrolet Bolt due to a fire risk involving seat belts

EV battery fires have become a well-known hazard, but can you imagine the unforeseen danger posed by your car's seatbelts? GM's all-electric Bolt EV has recently been recalled due to an accident risk caused by its seatbelt pretensioners.

GM's defect notice to NHTSA says it will recall 111,242 examples of the 2023-2027 Bolt EV (but not the EUV; its seatbelts use a different pretensioner configuration) to install a metal foil to protect the carpet from the pretensioner exhaust should it ever have to deploy. This change has already been implemented in production and vehicles built after October 25 of this year.

The problem lies in the design of the Chevrolet Bolt EV's seat belt pretensioners, which, upon GM's investigation, could deploy during a car crash and cause a fire near the B-pillar area. "In certain crashes that cause the front seatbelt pretensioners to deploy, the exhaust from the deployed pretensioner may ignite fibers in the floor carpet near the B-pillar," the document stated.

Owners should be notified of the issue starting in January; expect a notice with instructions to arrive by the end of the month.

This isn't the first recall concerning the Chevrolet Bolt. Earlier this year, 2017-2022 model years Bolt EV and Bolt EUV had their battery packs replaced due to a fire risk.

Source: NHTSA