While driving 50mph on a 4 lane highway, propulsion reduced speed and engine unavailable message came on and the car immediately shut down, a car almost hit me because of it. I had to hurry up jump out and try and push it off the road out of oncoming traffic! After about 15 minutes of turning car off and then back on. It finally started again, I then drove 1/4 mile and it did it again this time as turning left across a 2 lane highway with traffic oncoming, once again had to hurry up and jump out and push it out of the road! This was such an extremely scary situation for me and I thank god my wife wasn-??t driving with our daughter and grand kids! This is the 2nd time because on 8/1/2025 it did the same thing while driving on a major 4 lane toll road, was able to pull off to side of the highway BUT had to be towed home!

- Orange City, FL, USA

I was slowly maneuvering my car into my garage when the vehicle suddenly and unexpectedly surged forward, despite only lightly tapping the brake and not touching the accelerator. The car had been displaying the warning, -??Propulsion Power is Reduced-?? and was not holding an electric charge in the days before the incident. No malfunction indicator lamp ever turned on. Per the owner-??s manual, the vehicle did not need to be serviced because the malfunction indicator light never came on at the same time as the propulsion power reduced message. This led me to believe the vehicle was safe to drive. The unexpected surge caused the car to strike and cause considerable damage to the garage wall. Fortunately there was no one in the garage at the time and I, myself, was not injured. My car was deemed a total loss by the insurance company.

- Sacramento, CA, USA

Propulsion power is reduced

- Waltham, MA, USA

Loss of propulsion. Vehicle will not start/move. If vehicle does turn on, it will not turn off. Vehicle has been having reduced propulsion issues for multiple years (taken to dealer many times) that dealership has refused to do a HV battery capacity test while under warranty, even after leaving with them for multiple months they claimed they could not replicate error. On day of pickup error presented itself and I showed service advisor and left vehicle for additional testing. Dealer provided explanation of reduced propulsion when in mountain mode as cause even though vehicle was not in mountain mode when error occurred. Dealer performed customer satisfaction GM Program # N172130462 update 11/2021 on HV system that stopped propulsion issues (mainly battery capacity concerns) until vehicle was out of warranty. Now vehicle will not turn on/move even though HV battery completely charged. Vehicle is essentially bricked at this point. Will be taking back to dealer 12/30/2024

- Meridian, ID, USA

I'm losing power as I am driving and car is moving slower than usual.

- Desert Hot Springs , CA, USA

I bought my car and I had no idea about a known issue that this car has. Unsuspecting and trusting, I noticed my car had a reduced propulsion and it would like lose power and just slowly jerk and then really drastically reduce speed without anyway to fix it and on the freeway I got scared as I have never in my life has this happen in any car. So it happen a couple more times and I took a picture of it and took it to the dealership where I purchased it. They told me they couldn-??t do l as they can-??t repeat the issue. Well that only usually happens when I-??m driving but now it-??s more. The propulsion thing loses power and I as a driver going up a hill or anywhere now will lose speed and it-??s dangerous, I feel like I may not make it home and I took it to the dealership many times and they told me there-??s no issue. I took it again recently now that I-??m out of warranty because it also had some high voltage issue and a sensor coolant issue that misreads. I like the car but very unhappy about dealership and manu not fixing this issue that every volt owner I talk to has, read about. I lose power, my car randomly heads up when it-??s been cold all night and not driven now I have the same issues. I have the same issues and I use 91 gas, I have inspected my car and I had to learn about cars or more than I ever did which was like zero all because of this car. I even took it to the dealership 3-4 times (documented) to get it fixed and they just said there isn-??t anything wrong nor did they say there-??s a known issue and watch out for this or that. I had to look up the issue and learn about it on my own. Very dangerous date happening this is happening now almost everyday but was frequent 1.5 years ago but last 8 months it-??s like the standard. I-??m afraid my car will lose power on freeway, which it does and I have to take toll to stay away from others for everyone-??s safety

- Aliso Viejo, CA, USA

My 2014 Chevy Volt suffered a complete failure of the EV power system when the battery reached 0 remaining miles. Unlike normal failover to hybrid mode, the vehicle switched into reduced power mode. I was able to drive home (1/4 mile) in this mode but was unable to charge or drive the car after parking it. At this point the car become completely immobile and had to be towed to the dealer (Jerry's Chevolet in Joppa MD). It was there as of December 18. 2023. This is the same behavior as noted in the complaint about Gen 2 Volts except this is a Gen 1 Volt. In the reduced power mode, the car does not accelerate normally and is subject to power surges. The dealer inspected the car and said that a failed cell in the traction battery caused a fault in the entire traction pack. The resulting repair requires a replacement of the battery for $22,000 not including labor! The car is otherwise in excellent condition. I had the SAME issue repaired under warranty in 2021 with the exact same symptoms. If a reasonable battery replacement was offered, I would happily repair the car. Prior to the fault, the vehicle performed normally and even had 39 miles of range (this is nearly original range). I had not indication that the battery may be failing or degraded.

- Baltimore, MD, USA

The car stopped working at a stoplight while I was driving my son to school. There was no warning other than a "Propulsion power is reduced" message seconds before it stopped working. After turning it off and back on, I got the car to limp out of traffic. By the time the tow truck arrived an hour later, we could barely get it to go into neutral to tow it. After towing it to the dealer, they replaced the engine control module. Since then, it has been working fine.

- Apex, NC, USA

Vehicle stopped when changing from battery power to gasoline. Unable to drive. Not charging the Lithium battery therefore, I experienced 3 similar incidents with this vehicle. The first one on 02/15/22. The vehicle was towed to Bommin Chevrolet in Florida City, FL. This time it was under warranty. The second time 01/02/23 while on the road similar thing happened, again was towed to Tropical Chevrolet in North Miami, FL; a diagnostic was performed the error code was cleared and started charging again. This time same issue when the main battery was depleted the vehicle stalled. I had to towed to my home where is still sitting. Not operational.

- Homestead , FL, USA

A similar issue is currently listed under the 2013 Volt here but I experienced it on a 2014 Volt & it led to complete engine failure while driving, very different than just "reduced propulsion power". I was driving my Volt on its extended range mode with the gas engine (days earlier, I had taken the car to a repair shop & gotten a green light on it) & I got an error message "service power steering--drive with caution". that error message then turned to "service parking assist" & then "service stabilitrak", but it was driving fine & I intended to take it to the dealership the next day. Then before I could get home, the message changed to "propulsion power is reduced", so the car couldn't drive as fast as before. I still needed to drive home so I turned on my hazards & then that error message morphed into "engine not available, service soon". now it's still driving okay but then all of a sudden it decelerates completely and stops moving in the median on the highway. I was lucky to be alive. I was never informed of any recall on any Volt & I previously owned two other 2013 Volts.

- Los Angeles, CA, USA

On 2/17/2020, I was driving on I-5 northbound at about 10 pm near burlington, wa. My speed was about 60 mph on a relatively flat highway. Weather was normal for the time. No rain, no wind. Shortly after my car switched from the electric-powered over to gas-powered, the car started to rev very high and quickly decelerated even though my foot was fully pressed on the accelerator pedal. "propulsion power reduced" message came on, followed by "engine not available, service soon" message came on. The cel also came on. I had never seen these messages before. Semi-trucks were bearing down on me from behind. It was a very dangerous situation. Luckily, I was able to coast to the right shoulder without any car damage or injury. Easily this could have been more serious damage and/or injury if there was more traffic nearby or I stalled in the traffic lanes. I was able to re-start car at about 10 minutes and slowly drove home at a very reduced speed. Subsequently, my car seemed to drive fine. But every time the car goes from electric to gas, I get nervous that this incident will reoccur and cause an accident. Many times, the high rev will start and the "propulsion power reduced" message comes on and the car decelerates but thankfully the car has not completely lost power like the first incident. About 1 month later, I took the car to a Chevrolet dealership for diagnostics. The cel went out prior. They could not find any faults and said everything was normal. Nothing was stored in memory. They could not reproduce the problem in the shop. The "propulsion power reduced" message has appeared again after servicing. I am fearful to drive this car.

- Bellingham, WA, USA

Loss of propulsion power. Car almost shut off was able to pull over. Was going up on a very small hill on the highway. Car was seen last year for the software update however loss of propulsion happened again.

- San Bernardino, CA, USA

The contact owns a 2014 Chevrolet Volt. While driving 65 mph, the propulsion power reduced warning indicator illuminated and the vehicle decelerated to 35 mph. The vehicle was pulled off the road and the battery died. The vehicle was towed to miami lakes auto mall (16600 nw 57th ave, miami lakes, fl 33014, (305) 455-3540) where it was diagnosed that the software to the propulsion system need to be updated. The software update was performed, but the failure recurred three times. The manufacturer was notified. The approximate failure mileage was 53,016.

- Hialeah, FL, USA

While driving at 45 mph, the vehicle battery system turned off losing the ability to accelerate. The engine did not turn on when the battery drains to zero. The battery was fully charged at about 95% with about 40 miles of range remaining. The gas tank was 3/4 full. Had to come to a complete stop in traffic, place the car into park, turn off the car completely then begin restarting it for all functionality to return.

- New Braunfels, TX, USA

On June 4, 2018 I was driving with 4 miles left of electricity power, once I ran out of electricity it switched over to the gasoline tank which was half full. Once this switch occured I received the message on the dashboard that read "propulsion power reduced" and "engine not available, service soon". I was drving on a regular flat street (no steep hills) for about 15 minutes then went into freeway. Once in the freeway my vehicle began to slow down significantly giving me just enought time to pull over to the right shoulder lane. I was very lucky to have been able to pull all the way to the right which in part was due to the fact that I was already on the right lane, but if I had been on the left lane I can guarantee I would not have made it safely to the shoulder lane. Prior to this I have had absolutely no other issues with the vehicle. On March 26, 2018 I took my vehicle to the dealership were it was purchased for an oil change and for a complete check and all results were normal.

- Bell, CA, USA

Good morning, I need to file a complaint against GMC for my car not meeting pre-certication as advertised. After three months I had to have my tires replaced and the fuel system is not providing the gas as advertised. The fuel is only around 12 miles a gallon when the air conditioner

- Fresno, CA, USA

While in full motion on the highway, the car suddenly decelerated to 5 mph despite pressing on the accelerator and then a minute or two later completed stalled out. Two error messages: Engine not available, service soon and propulsion power is reduced. An earlier incident, a few months ago, while accelerating up a slight incline, the car decelerated to a few miles per hour despite pressing on the accelerator.

- Lilburn, GA, USA

2014 Chevrolet Volt. Consumer writes in regards to electric drive malfunction. The consumer received two error messages on the dashboard that read propulsion power is reduced and engine not available, service soon. The vehicle stalled within minutes. The consumer tried to re-start the vehicle, but it stalled again within seconds.

- Riverview, FL, USA

I received the Chevy Volt 2/20/14 at around 10:45 am. My partner and I had a very important meeting at 12:30 P.M. in jersey city, NJ so we left directly from the dealership in the brand new Volt, 7 miles on the odometer. At approximately 12:00 P.M. the car alarmed with two messages: 1. engine not available and 2. propulsion power reduced. The alarms/engine failure came at the most inopportune time---while on the New Jersey turnpike in a construction zone and no available shoulder. With semi-trucks bearing down on us, we luckily made it to a construction pull off area and called on star. On star informed us the turnpike is a restricted zone so they could not send anyone, they were helpful and got in touch with the turnpike authority which sent a tow truck. While I was on the phone with on star my partner called the dealership where we got the car. They were helpful and contacted the dealership where the car would be towed"malouf Chevrolet. After waiting over 30 min for a tow truck to arrive, all the while fearing I was going to be mowed down by a semi-truck on the shoulder, the brand new Volt, my partner and I were off the turnpike. Upon arrival to malouf we were greeted by a member of their service team, he asked me how many miles were on the car. I said?66?, he asked ?6600?, I responded ?no! 66, the car only ran for a little over an hour after delivery!" we now have a loaner from malouf and have not heard anything about what caused this catastrophic failure of the brand new Chevrolet Volt.

- Sewell, NJ, USA