General Motors has started offering Chevy Bolt EV owners a $6,000 refund as long as they promise not to sue over the battery fire recall fiasco of last year.
In June, GM announced that the 2023 Chevy Bolt EV and EUV are getting a significant $6,000 price cut – this was surprising at a time when most automakers are raising the prices of electric vehicles.
On the other hand, the Bolt EV and EUV were in a strange situation after the major setback of recalling virtually all vehicles ever produced due to a battery fire risk coming from a defect in the battery cells supplied by LG Energy Solutions.
GM ended up doing the right thing and replacing battery modules in all cars, but the automaker has been criticized for delaying the decision to recall the electric vehicles and pushing “software fixes” in the meantime. During that time, several more vehicles ended up going up in flames until GM finally decided to replace the battery modules in August 2021.
That certainly didn’t help sales, but the Bolt EV and EUV were still a good offering at that price point with now good batteries. As we recently reported, the $6,000 price drop made them the best value EVs in America, by far.
Of course, the price reduction has bummed out many existing Bolt EV owners who had to go through the recall and missed out on the lower price.
GM is now offering rebates of up to $6,000 to those owners. It has been sending emails to owners to see if they are eligible, but the fingerprints of the rebate agreement come with an interesting clause that includes not suing GM over “battery defect or recall” (via Jalopnik):
Forever waive and release all claims, damages, or causes of action arising out of my Bolt vehicle, the battery defect, or the battery recalls.
The clause basically turns the rebate into a legal release with compensation.
You can check with your local dealers for GM Bolt EV inventory and see if you can find a deal.
Electrek’s Take
I know that the whole experience has been frustrating for some Bolt EV owners – we talked to many of them during our reporting – but ultimately GM ended up doing the right thing. It just took some pressure.
I am not one to tell people what to do, but if it were me, I’d take the money at this point. I am no legal expert, but somehow I doubt that any legal action would result in a greater compensation than up to $6,000 you can get through this program – it it sounds like a good deal.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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