General Motors filed two separate safety recalls with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on July 30, 2026. One covers potentially cracked steel wheels on the 2026 Chevrolet Silverado EV and 2026 GMC Sierra EV; the other covers a high-voltage battery defect with a fire risk affecting the Silverado EV, Sierra EV, and the Cadillac Escalade IQ and Escalade IQL.
What the wheel recall covers
The larger of the two recalls covers 952 trucks: 513 Chevrolet Silverado EV and 439 GMC Sierra EV units from the 2026 model year. This recall affects only vehicles with steel road wheels and/or steel spare wheels , under NHTSA campaign 26V496.
According to the recall report, “One or more of the steel wheels and/or the spare tire wheel on these vehicles may have a manufacturing defect that can eventually result in cracking at the disc vent holes.” The defect develops over time and may not be immediately visible, allowing damage to worsen before the wheel is put into service.
A cracked wheel may lead to disc separation and a loss of control, increasing the risk of a crash. For Silverado EV trucks, service technicians will inspect all four wheels and the spare, if equipped. On the Sierra EV, only the spare steel wheel will be inspected. Because the Sierra EV inspection covers only the spare, the safety concern on that model arises if a defective spare is installed following a flat tire or other roadside event.
As per NHTSA documentation, suspect Silverado EV and Sierra EV pickups were produced between October 24, 2025, and March 13, 2026, for model year 2026 exclusively. The recall involves all-electric trucks equipped with either RT3 steel wheels or SG8 spare steel wheels.
Containment measures and validation improvements were implemented in April 2026, helping ensure that later vehicles would not be affected by the defect.
A second recall targets the battery
GM is also recalling certain 2026 Cadillac Escalade IQ, Escalade IQL, GMC Sierra EV, and Chevrolet Silverado EV vehicles under a separate campaign (NHTSA 26V494). The high-voltage battery may have an improperly secured internal module component; a loose component may move and damage the high-voltage battery, increasing the risk of a fire.
Neither recall carries a do-not-drive or park-outside advisory, and the battery recall covers just ten vehicles in the United States. GM has reported zero incidents across both campaigns.
For the battery defect, dealers will replace the high-voltage battery. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed by September 14, 2026.
What owners should do now
Dealers will inspect and replace the steel wheels as necessary, free of charge, with notification letters also expected to be mailed by September 14, 2026. Vehicle identification numbers involved in the wheel recall became searchable on NHTSA.gov on July 30, 2026.
Owners of Silverado EV and Sierra EV pickups optioned with at least one steel wheel can check whether their vehicles are included by entering the 17-character VIN into the NHTSA recall database. Owners can also contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020, GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782, or Cadillac customer service at 1-800-333-4223. GM recall numbers are N262556920 for the wheels and N262562600 for the battery.
The wheel recall is a phased campaign, and unsold trucks that fail the dealer inspection are held until replacement wheels arrive. Buyers waiting on a steel-wheel Silverado EV delivery may experience a short delay.
GM sold 11,275 Silverado EVs and 7,996 Sierra EVs in the United States in 2025.
The dual recall underscores continued NHTSA scrutiny of electric pickup platforms. GM’s broader EV strategy includes plans confirmed earlier this year to ship all 12 of its 2027 EVs with native NACS charging ports. Safety regulators have also been widening their focus beyond hardware: a federal safety benchmark recently expanded its driver-assist test suite to eight pass-fail criteria, adding software-level scrutiny on top of the mechanical compliance obligations that recall campaigns like these still enforce.
