Timing, as they say is everything. Four years ago, Chevrolet launched the Bolt EV as the first electric vehicle with range of over 200 miles and a starting sticker price of under $40,000. Unfortunately, as good as the Bolt is, it was entirely the wrong form factor for a market that was rapidly abandoning small cars and it didn’t have Elon Musk’s cult of personality around it so sales have languished. Now General Motors aims to addresses complaints people had about the original Bolt by giving the car a fresher look and interior, a base price that’s thousands of dollars less than Tesla’s Model 3 and a platform mate: the Bolt EUV “crossover.”
Back in early 2017 when the Bolt was first going on sale, crossovers were already well on their way to subsuming the traditional car-shaped auto market. Chevrolet marketers actually tried to refer to the Bolt as a crossover, presumably based on its relatively upright stance and taller hip point. Needless to say, the market did buy into this line of thinking and everyone recognized the Bolt for what it was, a compact hatchback.
Not that there is anything inherently wrong with compact hatchbacks, they are an excellent form factor, especially for urban driving. On the original media drive, we drove the Bolt from our starting point in Palo Alto, just a couple of minutes drive from Tesla’s TSLA -2.4% TSLA -2.4% headquarters to the Pacific coast and up to San Francisco. It proved to be surprisingly quick and nimble on twisty mountain roads, very efficient and with its compact footprint, much easier to maneuver in the city than the substantially larger EVs from that other company.
To the degree there were complaints apart from the shape, the biggest were the seats and the materials. The seats were comparatively thin and while I never personally had an issue with them, others found them uncomfortable. With GM GM -0.3% clearly trying to manage costs to minimize the losses on the Bolt the hard plastics were also an issue for some in a car that cost nearly $40,000 before tax breaks. Since its launch, the only notable change to the Bolt has been an upgraded battery for the 2020 model year that boosted range from the original 238 miles to 259 miles.
Lower Prices
Along with a range of upgrades, 2022 Bolts get a lower sticker price. The standard 2022 Bolt EV is getting a $5,500 base price cut to $31,995 including delivery charges. (That’s $6,000 cheaper than Tesla’s base version Model 3 sedan, the company’s top-seller, which goes an estimated 263 miles per charge.) The Bolt EUV starts at $33,995. GM is also offering a Bolt EUV Launch Edition with all the options including Super Cruise, special badging and an illuminated charge port for $43,495.
GM hit the threshold of 200,000 plug-in vehicle sales in the spring of 2019 and since April 2020 has no longer been eligible for the federal tax credit. While that situation may change with the new administration in Washington, for now GM is at a significant cost disadvantage compared to many other brands like Nissan, VW, Hyundai and Kia. If as expected the cap on tax credits is raised and GM vehicles again become eligible, the Bolt would finally get down into the $25,000 range making it nearly price competitive with similar-sized gas vehicles.
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