Have You Ever Owned a Chevy Volt? You May Be Entitled to Compensation

William Asher
Published Nov 4, 2023


When the Chevy Volt first came out, it was seen as a miracle of modern engineering. With its extensive range, fully electric operation, and relatively good safety ratings, it seemed as though there were very few downsides. However, according to a group of plaintiffs, there was one hidden ticking time-bomb: the battery.


What Happened?


A group of Chevy Volt owners across the United States is alleging that General Motors, the owner of Chevrolet, created a battery with a defect that caused the vehicle to catch on fire.

A judge for the court of the Northern Federal District Court of Illinois found that the class action suit held muster and is allowing it to continue. Remember, there's still time to join this class as a defendant and get in on the "ground floor" to set yourself up for the best possible settlement.


Is Winning Likely?


Of course, nobody wants to invest their time in a losing lawsuit. This lawsuit seems exceptionally promising. General Motors itself had put out a manufacturer's recall on 68,000 Chevy Volts currently in use. The reason was a defective battery that had been causing fires.

Given the unfortunate timing for General Motors to put out its mandatory recall and the granting of class action status, it would be difficult for General Motors to argue that the defect doesn't exist or downplay it. They will likely attempt to settle out of court for an undisclosed amount rather than admit guilt in court.


Already Was Under Investigation


In case you needed another reason to be interested in this class action suit, the National Highway Transit Safety Administration (NHTSA) was already investigating General Motors and their Chevy Volt. This was after five vehicle fires, some of them fatal, had occurred in short succession exclusively on Chevy Volts.

NHTSA's investigation will be a critical part of this lawsuit and will likely be more exposed once the discovery process begins. In another blow to GM, NHTSA had already determined that there was one factor in common among all the Volt fires: the battery was fully charged. Further, they have stated that they believe the cause of the fires was older batteries that were fully charged. No formal engineering details have been released, but those will also become much clearer in the coming days and weeks.


What Is General Motors Doing?


Right now, it appears that the company is attempting to perform damage control on this incident. Further signaling that the company will ultimately settle in court, GM has already made a major announcement involving the Volt. They said that in the future, batteries will be designed to only operate at 90% capacity, following the findings of NHSTA's investigation.


One Major Fact to Be Investigated


There's one major fact that still needs to be uncovered. The item that remains under contention is whether the battery's capacity is the advertised 60 kWh. This is what GM still claims the capacity is; the group of plaintiffs is claiming that they had reason to know that the true capacity of the Volt's battery is 57 kWh. Further, they're claiming that this 3 kWh discrepancy is a major contributing cause to all of these fires involving Volts.

Interestingly, GM's announcement that their batteries will only operate at 90% of their capacities would limit it to utilizing 54 kWh rather than 60 kWh. Some have theorized that this is GM's tacit way of admitting that the group of plaintiffs is correct regarding what the actual capacity of the battery is.

Of course, there is still no definitive answer to this question. We'll need to wait for the case to go through a few rounds of court before the discovery process and the court determine the answer, one way or another.


How Do I Join?


If you owned or own a Chevy Volt, there's no reason to not join this class! Because it's on a contingency basis, you don't need to pay anything to become a member and benefit from any settlement that might precipitate from this suit. However, the attorneys involved will collect reasonable attorneys' fees in this event.

For information on how to claim membership in the class involved in this suit, refer to their attorneys' major public statement regarding the lawsuit. It contains critical information about the case's current status as well as what's most likely to happen later.

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