The Chevrolet Bolt EV

In this week’s top stories: Tesla Model 3 prototype sightings and new details, GM delays its Chevy Bolt EV rollout into 2017, the latest solar and energy news, and much more.

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Since all of GM’s all-electric cars have so far been compliance cars produced only to comply with ZEV mandates, it wasn’t out-of-bounds for people to doubt them (myself included) when they announced that the Chevy Bolt EV will be available in all 50 states at launch.

It now looks like the doubt was warranted since after months of weakening their language about the launch, GM has now made it clear that only California and Oregon will get the Bolt in 2016, and the rest of the US will see a “slow flow” throughout 2017.
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The reviews are in, and the 2017 Chevy Bolt EV has topped all competition to become Motor Trend’s 2017 Car of the Year.  This is GM’s second electrified car to win the award, and the third electrified car and second pure EV overall (2011 Volt, 2013 Tesla Model S). Among other electric cars considered by Motor Trend were the Model S and X, both of which became finalists in their categories. More on them below.

Motor Trend praised the Bolt’s performance, packaging and roominess, ground-up engineering as an EV, efficiency and value at $37,495 or $29,950 after $7500 US Federal Tax rebate.

Of particular interest are the Bolt’s performance numbers, which time the Bolt EV at a 0-60 of 6.3 seconds.  With performance like that, Motor Trend said the Bolt could make “a helluva hot hatch” and that in “fun per mile” it competes against the Mazda3 or Golf, with similar performance and price range as a Golf GTI.  It’s no P100D, but for a small front-wheel-drive EV, the car has a lot of power.
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The Chevy Bolt assembly line began putting together customer cars today in Orion Township, Michigan according to the AP.  Unfortunately for most of us, the cars will only reach California and Oregon in 2016 before a wider rollout next year…
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On a recent Saturday afternoon, Kim Reynolds from Motor Trend brought a Chevy Bolt to a Tesla meetup in Orange County, California, to see what a group of local Tesla owners thought about Chevy’s new entry into the market.

This longtime EV driver was fortunate enough to be at the meetup, and I must say I was quite impressed.  I’m predisposed to being impressed by any serious EV, but Chevy really does seem to have done a good job with this one.

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There has been a lot of speculation around GM’s production capacity for the Chevy Bolt EV, a $37,500 all-electric vehicle with 60kWh battery and 238 mile range. We’ve heard numbers between 25,000 and 50,000 units per year. Now LG Chem, GM’s battery supplier for the Bolt, says that they are expecting to produce “over 30,000” battery packs for the vehicle program next year.
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GM is still promising to start shipping the Chevy Bolt EV by the end of the year. After some fear of delays, it looks like it is about to keep its promise as dealerships in California and Oregon are reporting being granted their initial allocation for the upcoming all-electric vehicle.
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If you listen to the media and industry analysts, there’s an ongoing battle between the Tesla Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt EV over market shares in the midsize electric vehicle segment. That’s even before either car hits the market. I’ve already argued that it’s a nonexistent battle but it feels like we need to clarify further.

Over a year ago, I wrote “GM is making a $37,500 car that would sell for $20,000 if it wasn’t electric, while Tesla is trying to make a $35,000 car that would sell for $35,000 if it wasn’t electric,” and I still think it’s true today now that we know more about both vehicles.

Now that doesn’t mean that the Bolt will not sell, I actually think it will sell quite well, but I don’t think they will be stealing reservation holders from Tesla. Of course, GM disagrees. In reference to the ~400,000 Model 3 reservation holders, Steve Majoros, Marketing Director for Chevrolet, said last week: “I think we’ll get some of those people”.
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GM confirmed the base price of the Chevy Bolt EV today. It reiterated that it will start at $37,495 before any EV incentives for the base LT trim. And now, the automaker also confirmed the price for the Canadian version of the car.

Surprisingly, it will be significantly cheaper in Canada and I’m not talking about electric vehicle incentives.
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GM has been slowly trickling down information about the Chevy Bolt EV in the past few weeks ahead of a release in “late 2016”. Last week, the automaker confirmed an impressive range of 238 miles on its 60 kWh battery pack.

Today it continued releasing information by confirming that DC fast-charging will be offered as a $750 option. GM also confirmed that the Bolt EV will be offered in two trims: LT and Premier.
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…You’ve done the first 240 miles of California highway with relative ease. But how do you do the second 240 miles? And 3rd…? In short, can you drive cross country?

I’m more than impressed with the Chevy Bolt so far – it has exceeded my expectations by at least 20 miles of range and during my test drive at CES earlier this year in Las Vegas I found it to be very roomy and sporty and frankly a lot of fun to drive. Chevy should absolutely be applauded. We covered the recent reviews here.

But as an EV buyer, I’m not yet satisfied with Chevy’s solution to cross country driving…you know: the quintessential American Road Trip…
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Now that mostly everyone has had a chance to catch up on GM and Chevy’s recent announcement about their Bolt EV, we thought it would be helpful to roundup some of the initial first impressions about the car from members of the press that were flown to California by Chevy to test the Bolt’s range…

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After only talking about “more than 200 miles” for over a year now, GM finally announced today the expected EPA-rated range of its upcoming all-electric Chevy Bolt EV. The automaker expects the EPA to give the Bolt an impressive range of 238 miles.
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Chevy today teased on its Facebook Page that it would be announcing the Bolt’s EV range tomorrow but asked readers to guess the range today. I don’t think you’ll get a free Bolt or anything but it’s a fun game to play…and we have a poll below for your guesses…
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Today GM reported that it would be initiating a recall of around four million cars due to a software defect in their airbag deployment system. Customers will have to bring their cars to their local GM dealers where they will update the software free of charge.

Coincidently, the announcement of the recall is arriving just days after Pam Fletcher, Chief Executive Engineer at General Motors, stated that over-the-air (OTA) programming would be coming to the Bolt EV when she was speaking at a conference earlier this week.

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After an email exchange in which Elon Musk reprimanded him for buying a gas-guzzler in 2013, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, also known as the Woz, bought a Tesla Model S. He has since often been spotted at Tesla Superchargers and talking up Tesla on his various social media accounts.

Surprisingly and in what almost looks like a marketing stunt, he now says that he wants to trade his Model S for the upcoming Chevy Bolt EV.
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Today, GM officially announced the Bolt EV’s capacity for ‘one pedal’ driving with customizable regenerative braking settings. While the capacity to drive only or mostly using the accelerator pedal, commonly known as the gas pedal, is not entirely new in electric vehicles, GM is pushing the idea a little further in the Bolt EV with different driving modes to get the most out of the experience.

Regenerative braking, the ability to recoup energy during deceleration, is one of the coolest things about electric vehicles because it offers so many advantages. It’s great from an energy standpoint since you get energy from deceleration, which would generally be lost from friction on  your brake pads, but consequently, you are also preserving your mechanical brakes.
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Building on our report from last week about GM confirming that its Chevy Bolt EV is still on track for production in ‘late 2016’ despite prior reports to the contrary, Autonews says that it spotted a ‘production intent’ Bolt EV in Detroit – hinting at the imminent start of production.
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GM announced today that its European brand, Opel, will officially unveil the Chevy Bolt EV-based Ampera-e at the Paris Motor show next month. The show starts  October 1st, but automakers generally make their announcement in the week before the show officially opens to the public.
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As the first relatively affordable all-electric car with a range of more than 200 miles, the Chevy Bolt EV is a highly anticipated vehicle. Just like with the Tesla Model 3,  any confirmed delay would be big news, which is probably why several readers pointed me to this report from Cleantechnica (update: they have since issued a correction) claiming that pre-orders have been delayed and deliveries have been pushed to January 2017.

But the problem is that it’s not true. We reached out to GM and a spokesperson confirmed to Electrek that deliveries are still planned for “later in 2016”.
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We said it before, but it’s worth pointing out again now that the production is about to start. GM’s Chevy Bolt EV could have just as well been called the LG Bolt EV since the Korea-based electronic giant, LG, is making most of the components that make the Bolt an electric vehicle, including the battery pack, the electric motor and the power electronics.

And now we learn that LG is gearing up to ‘mass-produce parts’ for the car as early as this month – ahead of the official start of production at GM, which is expected in October.
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