Spark ev catching fire

[evboy]

With all the press of the bolt ev going up in flames, why have none of the spark evs caught fire. I have a 2016 with the LG battery which is what the bolt uses. Are we lucky or on borrowed time.

 

[RSC]

I don't know. I think we don't really know yet what's going on with the Bolts. There were far fewer Spark EVs sold than Bolts, so maybe we don't have a large enough sample size. Each Spark EV has fewer cells than each Bolt, so maybe that counts as an even smaller sample size.

The numbers I found for the Bolt are
2017: 23297
2018: 18019
2019: 16418

For the Spark EV, I found 7400 total. Some of those would be 2014 models with the A123 cells, and we probably shouldn't count those. I have 2629 for the 2015 model. Those are LG cells, but not exactly the same as in the Bolt.

I could be off on these numbers, but that's what I saw. I am watching to see what plays out with the Bolt, but for now I'm continuing to park in the garage, charging at 120V and 8 amps as I've always done.

 

[Kermit]

The Spark EV's battery pack is more closely related to that of the Volt than the Bolt. The Bolt had an entirely new design.

 

[SparkE]

more gas vehicles catch fire than battery vehicles. but that never makes it into the press.

 

[Lithium]

Hey guys,

I think I can shed at least a little light on this situation. My Primary driver is a 2019 Bolt Premier, which is having by far the most fires. After doing much research it appears to be Bolt batteries manufactured in Ochang, Korea. All 2017, 2018 and half of 2019 Bolts have batteries from Korea. Luckily I have confirmed that my 2019 Bolt has the batteries made in Holland, Michigan USA. All 2020 and 2021 Bolts also have batteries made in Michigan. I figured this out by decoding the numbers on a sticker located under my bolt. Also, I was not included in the July Bolt recall.

Apparently, GM has identified two simultaneous battery defects in some batteries made in Korea, especially the Korean battery 2019's.

The 2015 and 2016 Spark EV batteries were made in Holland, Michigan also. Good news!

I have found no Spark EV or Bolts with American batteries catching fire. Which is a good thing since these are the cars we keep in the garage.

12 Bolt fires with Korean batteries
0 Bolt/Spark fires with Michigan batteries.

For the record, we love both cars.