Chevrolet Just Announced a New Bolt
Back in April, Chevrolet announced that it would end production its entry-level Bolt EV and EUV at the end of 2023. This is despite the fact that the Bolt had its best sales year ever in 2022, and is set to outpace that figure this year. GM has apparently decided to change course, with CEO Mary Barra announcing on its quarterly earnings call that a second-generation Bolt is on its way.
"Our customers love today's Bolt," Barra said." It has been delivering record sales and some of the highest customer satisfaction and loyalty scores in the industry... it's also an important source of conquest sales for the company and for Chevrolet."
Barra didn't provide a specific timeframe for production, but it sounds like the next Bolt will be an update of the current model, rather than a truly new model using GM's Ultium EV platform.
"[W]e will execute it more quickly compared to an all-new program with significantly lower engineering expense and capital investment by updating the vehicle with Ultium and Ultifi technologies and by applying our ‘winning with simplicity’ discipline," she said.
Chevrolet told Road & Track that the current model is set to "sunset" at the end of 2023, but there's no announced date for the launch of the new Bolt. It's also unclear if it will be built at the same Orion Township, Michigan plant. When GM first announced the Bolt's cancellation, it said it would retool the plant for EV pickup production.
The Bolt debuted back in 2017 as one of the first mass-market EVs with a 200-plus-mile range, beating the Tesla Model 3 to market by a few months. But, it took a while for the Bolt to catch on, and it faced a notable setback with battery fires that led to a 2021 recall of all Bolts built to that point. After the recall was complete and new Bolts started arriving at dealers, Chevrolet discounted the car significantly, making it a rare bargain in the world of EVs. This also came as the Biden Administration's Inflation Reduction Act brought back a $7500 tax credit for the model, further increasing its appeal. Absent the Bolt, the Chevrolet Equinox EV was set to be GM's entry-level EV, with a base price of around $30,000.
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