General Motors (GM)

While reminiscent of the recent claims of unintended sudden accelerations in Tesla’s vehicles, especially after a Model X owner crashed into his own garage, we are not talking about the same thing here. Instead, we are talking about a possible acceleration without anyone being in the car – making a pedal misapplication unlikely.

That’s what a new Chevy Bolt EV owner in California claims happened after having parked his car in his garage earlier this week.
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We finally have a clear idea of when GM is planning to make the new Chevy Bolt EV available everywhere in the US. They announced that the Bolt EV will be available in all 50 states at launch, but they gave up on the idea last year and as we suspected, only made the vehicle available in California at launch. It’s now in both California and Oregon – more ZEV states will follow during the first half of the year.

Now we learn that non-ZEV states will follow in July and the automaker only plans for all-state availability in September – about a year after originally planned.
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If GM isn’t going to reach large production volumes with the Chevy Bolt EV, maybe it will with more all-electric models using the same platform. That’s what CEO Mary Barra is suggesting this week by saying that the automaker plans to release a “huge range of vehicles” using the platform.

Barra made the comment this week at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) and added that the platform will also be used for the company’s autonomous program at the Deutsche Bank Global Auto Industry.
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In the first few months after its launch, GM’s Chevy Bolt EV managed to get away with the Motor Trend 2017 Car of the Year, the Green Car of the Year, and now it became the first all-electric vehicle to win the coveted North American Car of the Year (NACTOY ) as announced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit today.
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GM released its delivery report for December 2016 yesterday and it represents the whole year 2016 of deliveries for the Chevy Bolt EV since it started shipping only last month. The automaker confirmed that it managed to deliver 579 Chevy Bolt EVs in 2016.
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After delivering the first few Chevy Bolt EVs two weeks ago, only a handful more units have been making their way to customers in California, but GM has now reportedly shipped the all-electric car in volume for the first time with a ‘trainload’.
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Love it or hate it, wireless charging has been around for years. While stereotypically the technology comes with enough convenience issues to make most users question its superiority to traditional chorded tech, like any contemporary invention it has steadily improved over the past few years.

Earlier this week, a partnership was announced between Boston-area startup WiTricity and General Motors (GM), with the goal of developing wireless charging pads for electric vehicles.
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Another industry analyst is supporting the thesis that GM’s Chevy Bolt EV is a compliance car aimed at accumulating ZEV credits to allow the Michigan-based automaker to continue selling its profitable gas-guzzling vehicles.

After meeting with GM CFO Chuck Stevens last week, JP Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman released a note to clients claiming that the Bolt EV is part of an “improving array of electric vehicles from automakers which are pricing such vehicles with the aim not to turn a profit but rather to sell in sufficient volume to subsidize the rest of their more lucrative portfolios of internal combustion engine vehicles from a regulatory compliance perspective.”
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Following GM’s acquisition of autonomous driving startup Cruise Automation, the company launched autonomous vehicle testing programs using the all-electric Chevy Botl EV in San Francisco and Arizona. Today, the company announced that it is bringing the program home in Michigan after the state passed a new law approving self-driving vehicles for testing and even sales after an evaluation process.
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GM has been revealing its rollout plan for the Chevy Bolt EV in more detail over the last few weeks since giving up on the ambitious “50 state availability at launch.” The automaker has now delivered the first few units in California and will move to other states from early to mid-2017.

Now the company has confirmed its plan for the European version of the vehicle, the ‘Opel Ampera E’.
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While it shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a swipe at Tesla for delivering the first sub-$40,000 long-range electric vehicle before them, it wouldn’t be the first time that GM tries to subtly, or more directly, take a shot at Tesla with the Chevy Bolt EV. Like when it sent out press pictures with a Bolt prototype driving in front of Tesla’ HQ or when they criticized the company for its reservation process.

Today, GM announced that it delivered the first Bolt EVs to 3 customers in Fremont, California – just a few blocks from Tesla’s factory.
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Battery capacity degradation is to be expected with any battery-powered electric vehicle. The questions are how much degradation, how fast, and what is covered under the warranty. GM released the owner’s manual for the Chevy Bolt EV this week and in it, the automaker warns of potential battery degradation of up to 40% during the 8-year warranty period or within 100,000 miles.
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While the Chevy Bolt EV is currently only available in California and Oregon, it will soon make its way to the east coast thanks to a deal between GM and the city of New York. The de Blasio administration is ordering 50 all-electric Chevy Bolt with the first ones set to arrive in the spring and the order is expected to go up to 80 vehicles by the end of the fiscal year.

After a discount from GM and federal incentives, the city of New York is getting the vehicles at a very attractive price.
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I received a lot of negative comments after I called the Chevy Bolt EV a compliance car following GM’s cancellation of the nationwide availability at launch. My suspicion and some whispers I’d heard pointed toward GM losing thousands of dollars on each Bolt vehicle before accounting for ZEV credits in California and other markets.

Electrek talked off-the-record with a few people familiar with the Bolt EV program, and the figure of $10,000 was thrown around as the anticipated average loss per vehicle before incentive. Now Detroit News is corroborating today with a similar story citing a person familiar with the matter, claiming the anticipated loss on the $37,500 base price is roughly $8,000 to $9,000.
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As GM is starting to deliver the first Chevy Bolt EV shipments to select dealers in California, the company also launched its online design studio for potential customers to “build their own” Bolt EV. It’s our best look yet at all the options and pricing of GM’s first long-range all-electric vehicle.
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While we were disappointed to learn that the Chevy Bolt EV will not have a nationwide rollout until next year, GM is still going to deliver the electric car in California and Oregon by the end of the year and it is likely going to be one of the cheapest ways to get into electric vehicle ownership or leasing.

Yesterday, GM launched the Chevy Bolt EV’s leasing program and in short, you can get the Bolt EV for $309 a month and $0 cash down after incentives.
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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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As of last month, the U.S. is officially half way to the Department of Energy’s goal to have 1 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads. That goal was first set for 2015, but we are now obviously nowhere near the level and a year late.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz set 2020 as the new goal for the 1 million mark and with the recent sales numbers, it looks like it shouldn’t be a problem.
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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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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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