General Motors (GM)

The situation around the availability of the Chevy Bolt EV in Europe, where it is sold as the Opel Ampera E, has been even more difficult than in the US.

So much so that Opel has now asked its Norwegian dealers to stop taking orders for the new all-electric vehicle as supply can’t match demand.
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After testing their all-electric and autonomous Chevy Bolt EV prototypes in California, Michigan, and Arizona, GM’s Cruise Automation vehicles are going to New York City to further test their system in a difficult traffic environment.
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On Thursday, GM announced a pretty big move in promoting Pamela Fletcher, who led the team that successfully launched the Bolt EV, to the newly created position of ‘Vice President, Global Electric Vehicle Programs’. Before that, her title was Executive Chief Engineer Autonomous & Electrified Vehicles and New Technology so it can be assumed that this is more of a creation of a new group inside of GM rather than a promotion for Fletcher.  She was also chief engineer behind the impressive Volt Propulsion System (Voltec) so I’d be hard-pressed to find someone more qualified to lead GM’s EV programs.

The creation of the group could be a big deal not just for Fletcher but for GM’s electric vehicle programs and hopefully, it is the first step to bigger changes within the organization. Here’s why…

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GM’s Chevy Bolt EV sales steadily moved higher leading to national availability in August, but last month it got its first more serious jump in deliveries.

The automaker confirmed its September delivery results today and it delivered an impressive 2,632 Bolt EVs.
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While GM has often talked about believing in the electric future, the American automaker had yet to announce specific goals when it comes to its electric car lineup after the Chevy Bolt EV.

Today, GM updated those plans with a more serious commitment to electric vehicles.
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Let me preface this by highlighting the fact that there’s currently no fully self-driving car on the roads and the prototypes currently in test programs are far from perfect and therefore don’t represent the potential of a true level 5 autonomous driving system.

Now with this out of the way, it seems like people just can’t stop crashing into GM’s ‘self-driving’ Bolt EV prototypes.
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GM has been quiet about its plans for electric vehicles after the Bolt EV, which came out almost a year ago. They hinted at new EVs built of the Bolt’s platform and they claim to be serious about the electrification of their vehicle lineup, but not much has come of it so far.

It’s another matter in China where GM is now committing to 10 new electric vehicles by the end of the decade.
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As part of its effort to bring self-driving vehicles to market, GM has claimed today that their autonomous driving division has produced “the first real self-driving car (really).”
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The Chevy Bolt EV is now officially available in every state and it helped GM deliver a record 2,052 units last month – about 100 more electric cars or 5% higher than in July.
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On Friday, GM sent out a message to some early Bolt EV owners warning them they are recalling a few battery packs after detecting an issue that could cause them to shut down inexplicably.
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Maven, GM’s own car-sharing and mobility platform, has a special rental service called ‘Maven Gig’ just for ride-sharing drivers, like Lyft and Uber drivers.

The all-electric Chevy Bolt EV is already an important part of the program, but they are now expanding the vehicle’s presence as they expand Maven Gig across the US.
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GM’s autonomous driving division, Cruise Automation, announced the launch of the beta version of its autonomous ride-sharing app currently being used by employees in San Francisco, where they operate a fleet of autonomous Chevy Bolt EV test vehicles.

The new service is called ‘Cruise Anywhere’ and the company claims that it is already becoming the primary mode of transport for some of its employees.
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GM is trying to get some traction behind its Chevy Bolt EV as sales have been mostly flat for the first half of the year and now inventories are piling up.

In a bizarre press release about the vehicle today, GM pitches the Chevy Bolt EV by favorably comparing it to a 45-year-old lunar rover.
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Automakers are hedging their bets when it comes to self-driving. They all have development programs in-house, but most of them have also invested in startups.

Now GM, BMW and Toyota are all investing in the same “self-driving startup”, Nauto.
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GM has confirmed that its Orion plant, where they build the Chevy Bolt EV, will see an extended shutdown as part of the automaker’s broader effort to reduce inventories.

It is sending mixed messages about the all-electric vehicle program.
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Albeit slowly, GM’s Chevy Bolt EV sales are still growing – reaching a new high of 1,642 units in the US last month.

It brings the total delivered of the new all-electric vehicle in the US to 7,592 units since the beginning of the year and just over 8,000 since its launch in December 2016.
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Great news for current and future Chevy Bolt EV owners and GM: The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) just released the results of its safety test of the vehicle and it earned the top safety rating.
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Earlier this year, GM announced that it is growing its fleet of autonomous Chevy Bolt EV prototypes for its ‘GM Cruise’ startup.

Now the automaker announced the completion of the first batch of 130 prototypes at its Orion Assembly Plant located in Orion Township, Michigan.
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The cost of battery packs is still believed to be the main barrier in bringing down the overall price of electric vehicles.

GM managed to bring to market the first electric car with a reasonable price (<$38,000 before incentives) with a large battery pack (60 kWh), but it’s not yet making a profit on the vehicle.

Again, the battery pack was believed to be the main out of  control expense and now we get one more indication that it is the case based on the newly disclosed list price of $15,734.29.
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While deliveries of GM’s all-electric Chevy Bolt EV remain slow throughout the rollout, the automaker has announced that it accelerated its plans for nationwide availability by one month.

All authorized dealerships nationwide can now order the $37,500 all-electric car for deliveries in August instead of September.
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As we previously reported, GM has been struggling to ramp production and deliveries of the Chevy Bolt EV since its launch in December, but they now seem to have a good trend going over the past two months.

GM’s Chevy Bolt EV deliveries last month rose to 1,566 units, which is still below the rate needed to achieve its target, but it’s still a significant increase.
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