General Motors is recalling about 66 electric delivery trucks made by its subsidiary BrightDrop after the front-wheel drive units on at least two of them caught fire late last year.
The automaker says it is still investigating the root cause of the fires, but believes a manufacturing defect may have caused the gear to puncture the drive unit housing, creating an oil leak that could catch fire during heavy use. GM says in documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that it believes the defect was limited to its larger EV600 vehicles built between November 24, 2021 and May 24, 2022.
Companies like FedEx and Walmart have taken delivery of the EV600. The recall does not affect BrightDrop’s smaller EV400 trucks. GM shipped 497 BrightDrop trucks total in 2023.
The recall comes just months after GM reabsorbed BrightDrop in an effort to streamline its electric commercial vehicle efforts. BrightDrop was originally launched in 2021 when GM dropped it from the Global Innovation organization.
“The safety of our products is the highest priority for the entire GM team, and we are working to quickly resolve this issue for our customers,” the company said in a statement to TechCrunch.
GM received a report of a fire in the front drive unit of a BrightDrop EV600 on Dec. 7 and another on Dec. 13, according to bureaucracy filed with NHTSA. The company opened an investigation into the fires on December 22 and decided to issue a recall on January 4. Both affected vehicles belonged to an unknown GM fleet customer.
This is the third recall for BrightDrop vehicles. The EV600 has been recalled before end of 2022 after the company discovered a problem with the water seal in the van’s high voltage battery. It faced another recall in October when GM found out an issue with one of the van’s airbags.
