General Motors electric vehicles, including ones built in partnership with Honda, are now facing increased scrutiny from the top U.S. auto safety regulator after hundreds of incidents, more than 20 crashes or fires, and at least six injuries.
The brake problems also extend to some non-EV models, including the Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon, and the Buick Enclave and Envision. More than 1 million vehicles may be affected.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) first started its investigation in April 2024 after reports of trouble from owners of 2023 model year Cadillac Lyriq vehicles. The agency’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said Monday that it was upgrading this probe to what’s known as an “engineering analysis.” That’s the highest level of investigation that ODI performs, and is often a step the office takes before telling a company to issue a recall.
The initial complaints ODI received two years ago typically involved owners describing receiving a “Brake System Failure” message when starting up the vehicle, or after coming to a complete stop. GM performed “several internal investigations” into the issue, according to ODI, and determined that the problem was linked to fractures in the spindle of its “eBoost” brake-by-wire system.
