GM, which is spending tens of billions of dollars to switch its product line to electric vehicles in the coming decades, has essentially stopped making Bolts and Bolt EUVs, as they need every battery available for repair. 140,000 Bolts that they sold.
Those new vehicles – and all future GM EVs – feature a different battery than the Bolt, called the Ultrium, which promises exceptional performance. But that would make it harder for GM to sell Bolts with bad batteries, even if the fire problem was fixed.
And the Bolt is tiny – even the slightly larger Bolt EUV is 170 inches long, which while a few inches longer than the original, is about a foot shorter than the compact Toyota Corolla, even if it has interior space. The interior and cargo capacity are slightly larger because it is an engine.
“It feels like the Bolt is part of an electric vehicle category that is being phased out,” said Jessica Caldwell, analyst at Edmunds. “It’s a big difference from what we’re going to see over the next few years.”
To complicate matters further, a Cox Automotive survey found that 69% of people considering an electric vehicle don’t even know that GM offers an EV.
Reasons to keep Bolt
There’s a reason GM stuck with the Bolt, which starts at around $31,000: it’s the only mass-market EV GM will have for at least the next few years.
Its next generation of EVs, due out in late 2022, are aimed at a more affluent demographic. Hummer EVs start at $80,000 to $110,000, while the Lyriq starts at $59,000. Pricing for the Silverado EV hasn’t been announced yet, but it’ll probably be in the range.
For now, New Bolt sales are stagnating as 1,000 factory workers at GM’s Orion, Michigan plant where it was built are pending recall following layoffs. GM couldn’t build its other EVs, or any of the gas-powered cars in its lineup for that matter, at that plant without substantial retooling and investment.
So no matter how damaged the Bolt is in the eyes of EV buyers, GM will almost certainly start production again.
