On October 19th, when a Chevrolet Volt owner and gm-volt.conforum member “1RiverMan1” came home, he heard a voice mail message from his Volt adviser (sic) informing him about a potential problem with some of GM’s 2013 MY extended-range hybrids.

The problem was that the electric motor, on some cars, for no apparent reason stopped working while on the move. The adviser said that the steering and brakes of the Volt still worked, but if for some reason they were to stop working, the driver must coast to a stop, power the car off, wait for 2-5 minutes, and then power up the car again.

The problem that makes the “reboot” necessary is caused by a software glitch that affects only 2013 model Volts. General Motors confirmed that the 1RiverMan1’s post was accurate, and the he wasn’t the only one who encountered that problem.

Company rep Michele Malcho said that the glitch could affect as many as 4,000 2013 MY Volts and their owners who use the delayed charging option that enable them to charge the car’s battery at certain times.

“We are notifying 2013 model year Chevy Volt owners about a customer satisfaction issue,” is how Malcho described the problem. “We’re asking owners to bring their vehicles into their local Chevy dealer for a re-flash of the vehicle’s control system, which should take less than an hour.”

In addition Malcho says that owners are advised “to switch to immediate instead of delayed time charging to avoid this inconvenience” until that malfunction issue is addressed. GM said that no accidents or injuries have been reported because of the glitch and that they had already sent letter to all 4,000 Volt owners by FedEx last Friday. 

Image courtesy of Fitzpatrick Auto Center