The rivalry between automobile giants is nothing new. This rivalry has seen legendary outfits going head-on against each other; for example, the rivalry between Ford and Ferrari remained red hot for almost half a century. With Tesla rapidly establishing it as an automobile giant, it is bound to make some rivals and will ridicule some on the way to greatness. This is exactly what Elon Musk did this morning in his tweet. He tweeted that GM’s EV bolt, which keeps on catching fire, will lose ground to Tesla, which is rapidly moving towards being crowned as EV king.
Musk made these remarks in his tweet while responding to a tweet that statistically showed that Tesla holds 79% of the electric car market in the US as per the registration data.
“This might be part of the problem,” Musk replied, with which he linked an article by The Verge. It was stated that the Chevy Bolt EVs were being called back as they were at risk of catching fire.
Chevy Bolt EV is a famous and client favourite all-electric subcompact hatchback. The drawback is that the same model had to be called back by the manufacturers since the vehicle is prone to catching fire. The recall, which was limited initially, was expanded as the vehicle showed its vulnerability related to fire caused defects. The major issue is the battery packs by LG Chem. LG Chem happens to be a leading EV battery manufacturer, and this development has dealt a massive blow to their repute in particular and the EV market in general.
The issue’s gravity can be gauged by the fact that GM had to issue a troubling warning for its customers; the warning went something like this. . “We are working aggressively with LG to adjust production to have replacement modules available as soon as possible,”
But let us not overlook the fact that Tesla itself called back 135,000 vehicles earlier this year owing to faulty display. However, the company has not called back its vehicles for the potential hazard of fire, but the fact of the matter is that numerous incidents where a Tesla has caught fire during charging have been reported.
With what the facts state in the above-mentioned paragraph holding maximum market shares does not make you the best in the business. The Chevy Bolt EV was the stiffest competitor to Tesla in 2020, being the only non-Tesla EV to have sold more than 10,000 units per Electrek.
The dominance of Tesla in the US market could spell an overall decline in EV adoption in the USA. Tesla is leaps and bounds ahead of others competing in the same field, and others are having a hard time coping with the competition, which is not good for the overall EV scene in the country.
The owners of 2017, 2018, and 2019 Chevy Bolt EV have been affected by this recall, but the catch is that all these individuals will get an 8% boost in their battery capacity. The boost in the battery capacity means a better range in one charge. Well, there is some hope in all the despair GM is going through.
