Mass recalls of electric cars due to the danger of battery fires in some models risk deterring motorists from making the switch, experts have warned.
David Bailey, an automotive industry expert at Birmingham University, sounded the alarm after General Motors recalled the Chevrolet Bolt in the US for the third time in less than a year.
“Batteries are a new technology and there is a lot of uncertainty about it. Recalls such as this really affect consumer perception of electric cars and will hamper take up,” he said.
GM last week ordered 73,000 Bolts – a model not sold in the UK – to go back to dealers because of what it called manufacturing defects with their batteries made by Korea’s LG that created a fire risk.
It was the latest in a series of incidents involving electric cars catching alight.
Last week in Holland a Volkswagen ID.3 burst into flames while recharging, in what is thought to be the first incident involving a VW electric car. Its ID.3 and ID.4 models are two of Europe’s biggest-selling electric vehicles.
VW is buying batteries from LG until its own plants come online. The German company is investigating the cause of the fire.
Tesla, the world’s biggest-selling electric car maker that also uses LG technology, suffered a spate of battery fires last year.
It issued a report claiming conventional cars were far more likely to catch fire than EVs. Citing US data, Tesla said there was one Tesla vehicle fire for every 205 million miles travelled, compared with one every 19 million miles for a vehicle with an internal combustion engine.
The latest Bolt sent shares in LG down 11pc, wiping more than £4bn off its value. The company had been preparing to float its battery business.
LG said it was “actively working to ensure the recall measures are carried out smoothly”.
Mr Bailey said battery fires in electric cars were rare but made headlines because of their sensational nature and the difficulty firefighters faced in extinguishing them.
“With traditional internal combustion engine vehicles problems emerged over time so we don’t often hear about them, but pretty much every model has had a recall in its life because of some problem,” he said.
“But with electric cars because they are so new that is a lot of concern about the new technology they contain.”
The UK will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, but there are concerns about the cost of constructing the necessary charging network as well as dealing with motorists’ “range anxiety” about battery-powered vehicles.
The first recall of the Bolt came in November after a US investigation into fires in some parked cars.
GM blamed a problem with the LG batteries and told owners of almost 70,000 vehicles a software update was required that meant the cars could only be charged to 90pc while it sought a permanent fix.
The company said it knew of five fires and asked owners to park the cars outside as a precaution.
In July, the cars were recalled again with GM saying the batteries would be replaced at a cost of $800m while it sought compensation from LG.
The latest Bolt recall, which also included a halt on new sales, would cost $1bn, the company said.
