Chevrolet Bolt

First generation (2016)

History

GM Korea began developing the Bolt in 2012 with a team of 180 people with the project code G2KCZ (G2 for Gamma 2nd-generation platform, K for hatchback, C for Chevrolet, and Z for electric car). Its initial concept debuted at the 2015 North American International Auto Show.

As of June 2015, General Motors had tested more than 50 hand-built Bolt prototypes at the General Motors Proving Grounds in Milford, Michigan. The cars were tested at Proving Grounds and overseas for ride and handling dynamics, cabin comfort, quietness, charging capability, and energy efficiency.

Alan Batey, head of General Motors North America, announced in February 2015 that the Bolt EV was headed for production, and would be available in all 50 states. GM also has plans to sell the Bolt in select global markets.

In January 2016, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the production version of the Chevrolet Bolt was unveiled. During GM CEO Mary Barra's keynote at the show, Chevrolet confirmed an estimated range of 200 miles (320 km) or more, an approximate US$30,000 price tag (after government incentives), and stated it would be available in late 2016. Barra projected in February 2016 that the European version, marketed as the Opel Ampera-e (or Vauxhall Ampera-e in the United Kingdom), would enter production in 2017.

In March 2016, GM released photos and a short pre-production video of the Bolt at the company's Orion Assembly plant outside Detroit, testing manufacturing and tooling.

The car's user interface was developed in Israel.

An unnamed source cited by Bloomberg News estimated that General Motors is expected to take a loss of US$8,000 to US$9,000 per Bolt sold. A GM spokesman declined to comment about expected profitability. Opel refuted that in December 2016 and stated that GM has battery cell costs of $130/kWh, and industry is not yet optimized for mass production. A UBS tear-down in 2017 suggested slightly smaller losses per vehicle, of $7418 on a base spec, or $5520 on a higher spec vehicle. They estimate that by 2025 the Bolt will make a profit of about $6000 per vehicle.

Discontinuation and planned revival

In January 2022, GM announced that the Orion Township factory would be retooled at a cost of $4 billion to produce Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV pickup trucks, starting in 2024.

The affordable segment targeted by the Bolt was expected to be filled by the Chevrolet Equinox EV as GM shifts its EVs to Ultium third-generation battery technology. On April 25, 2023, GM CEO Mary Barra said that the Bolt and Bolt EUV would be discontinued at the end of 2023 to make room for GM's "new generation of electric vehicles."

The announcement drew public outcry. On July 25, 2023, Barra said there were plans for a second-generation Bolt using Ultium hardware and Ultifi software. Plans for this new Bolt only include the Bolt EUV body style.

GM ended Bolt production on December 20, 2023.

Design

The Bolt was designed from 2012 by a team of 180 people at GM Korea as a B-segment entry on its own platform, the GM BEV2. It does not share elements with the GM Gamma platform cars like the Chevrolet Sonic/Spark.

The EPA classifies the Bolt as "small station wagon", with less than 130 cu ft (3,681.2 L) of interior volume. GM refers to the Bolt as a crossover and puts it under the category of SUV on its website. The passenger volume is 94 cu ft (2,700 L), and cargo space is 17 cu ft (480 L) (381 liter).

The Bolt's doors, tailgate, and hood are aluminum. The driver can adjust the level of regenerative braking as the accelerator pedal is lifted. The front seats are asymmetrical to maximize cabin volume while accommodating airbags.

GM planned for over-the-air software updates during 2017 but the feature was finally released to the Bolt in April 2018.

In 2015, Chevrolet officials said they were considering changing the name Bolt because it was being confused with the five-year-old Volt, another electric car sold by the company. Chevrolet's marketing chief, Tim Mahoney, subsequently announced GM would keep the Bolt name.

Autoblog projected similar confusion among customers in Europe, where the Opel Ampera-e (the Bolt variant) was just one letter off from the Opel Ampera, the previous-generation Volt sold in Europe.

Tata Motors has sold a car named Bolt since 2014, and has registered the trademark in India and other countries.

The Cruise AV is a Bolt EV-based autonomous vehicle developed and tested by Cruise Automation, whose majority owner is General Motors; GM acquired Cruise in March 2016.

Pre-production versions of the Bolt EV were built at Orion Assembly in March 2016 and sent to Cruise, which modified the cars by adding sensors in San Francisco. The modified pre-production vehicles were photographed in San Francisco in May. Fifty of these first-generation (G1) Bolt EV-based Cruise AVs were tested from June 2016 in the San Francisco Bay Area and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Specifications

The Bolt's battery uses "nickel-rich lithium-ion" chemistry, allowing the cells to run at higher temperatures than those in GM's previous electric vehicles, allowing a simpler and cheaper liquid cooling system for the 60 kWh (220 MJ) battery pack. The battery pack is a stressed member and weighs 960 lb (440 kg). It accounts for 23% of the car's value, and is composed of 288 flat "landscape" format cells. Cells are bundled into groups of three connected in parallel, and 96 groups connected in series compose the pack, which is rated at 160 kW peak power. GM offers a battery warranty of 8 years / 100,000 miles (160,000 km), and has no plans for other battery sizes.

In October 2015, General Motors said they would purchase the Bolt's battery cells at a price of $145 per kilowatt hour from LG Chem, representing a minimum of $8,700 in revenue per car. The cost is reportedly about $100 cheaper per kWh than the price LG was giving other customers at the time. GM estimated a cell price of $130/kWh in December 2016.

While initially expected to share its lithium-ion battery technology with the second-generation Chevrolet Volt, the production version of the Bolt uses batteries with a different chemistry more suited to the charge cycles of a long-range electric vehicle, compared to the more frequent charging/discharging of hybrids and short-range EVs.

The 2020 model year's battery capacity increased to 66 kWh because of a small change made to the battery chemistry that increased the EPA-rated range by 21 miles (34 km). Physically, the battery is 50.2 in (1,280 mm) wide, 71.1 in (1,810 mm) long, and 7.3 to 13.7 in (190 to 350 mm) high, weighing 947 lb (430 kg).

Other specifications include a 200 hp (149 kW) and 266 lb⋅ft (361 N⋅m) interior permanent magnet electric motor, acceleration from 0–30 mph (0–48 km/h) in 2.9 seconds and 0–60 mph (0–97 km/h) in less than 7 seconds, and a top speed of 91 mph (146 km/h). The 72-slot/8-pole electric motor is integrated with a single-speed transmission and differential, to form a single modular drive unit that connects directly to the front axles. The single-speed transmission has a final drive ratio of 7.05:1.

The Bolt EV is tall hatchback design, with a curb weight of 3,580 pounds (1,620 kg). Despite its height of nearly 63 inches (1.6 meters), the center of gravity is less than 21 inches (53 cm) above the ground, thanks to the under-floor mounting of the battery pack. This yields surprisingly stable handling during cornering.

United States

Pre-production versions of the Bolt EV were built in March 2016 and sent to Cruise Automation, which modified them as test vehicles for autonomous driving. The modified pre-production vehicles were photographed in San Francisco in May.

Ordering began in California and Oregon in mid-October 2016. Production for the model year 2017 began in November 2016. The first three Bolts were delivered in the San Francisco Bay Area on December 13, 2016, and a total of 579 units were delivered in 2016. Availability was rolled out gradually across the United States, and by August 2017 the car was available nationwide.

To align production with demand, GM slowed production in July 2017. Subsequently, in the last months of 2017 Bolt demand rose rapidly; by October, it outsold any other model of electric car, including those from Tesla. Sales totaled 23,297 units in 2017, making the Bolt the U.S. second best selling plug-in car in 2017 after the Tesla Model S (≈26,500). In California, the Bolt listed as the top selling plug-in car with 13,487 units delivered, ahead of the much more expensive Tesla Model S, listed second with 11,813. The Bolt also led the state's subcompact segment in 2017, with a market share of 14.7% of all new cars sold in this category. As of February 2018, cumulative sales in the American market totaled 26,477 units.

In January 2019, GM reported that 2018 US sales for the Bolt totaled 18,019, down 22% from the previous year. (US sales of the Tesla Model 3, on the other hand, jumped from 1,764 in 2017 to 139,782 in 2018.) The combined sales of the Bolt and Volt also triggered the start of the full $7,500 tax credit phase out in Q4 2018, prompting the tax credit to reduce to $3,750 in April 2019 and $1,875 in October 2019 before disappearing entirely April 2020.

Canada

The Bolt has been available in Canada since the beginning of 2017. A total of 4,025 Bolt EVs were sold in Canada in 2020.

South Korea

In South Korea, General Motors opened the order books on March 18, 2017, and all 400 units of the first allotment were sold out in 2 hours.

European countries

The European version began production in February 2017.

The Ampera-e launch in the Norwegian market was scheduled for April 2017, when 13 were registered. Deliveries to retail customers began on May 17, 2017. Over 4,000 cars were ordered in Norway, with some to be delivered in 2018. Registrations totaled 1,121 units in 2017.

The Ampera-e was first offered for sale in Norway, the first country in Europe where it was marketed, at a starting price of 299 900 kr (€33 500) in December 2016, higher than that of the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3. Availability was limited, as the Ampera-e and Bolt both were assembled at the same Orion Township factory. Three months later in March 2017, Groupe PSA agreed to acquire Opel, the English twin sister brand Vauxhall and the European auto lending business from General Motors as GM exited the European market; the acquisition was completed in November.

By October 2017, European sales had expanded into Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany; there were 4,000-5,000 orders for the Ampera-e in Norway alone, which has a population of 5.2 million. However, dealers in Europe were asked to completely stop accepting orders for the Opel Ampera-e at the same time, as the entire annual allotment for Europe had been sold and the earliest possible delivery date was pushed to 2019. The starting price was raised to €46 699 in November. The fact that Opel was limiting orders of the Ampera-e in Norway, its most promising market, led to speculation that GM was planning to discontinue the model in Europe. GM previously has been accused of purposefully sabotaging its EV1 programme, most notably in the 2006 documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car?.

In February 2018, it was reported that 1,971 Opel Ampera-e had been sold in Europe to date. Deliveries in Norway trickled at fewer than 100 units per month in 2018. For comparison, in 2018, the Hyundai Kona Electric, equipped with a 64 kWh battery and offering comparable range to the Ampera-e, was offered for sale in Norway. The entire yearly allotment, 2,500 vehicles, was sold out almost instantly.

In 2018, it was virtually impossible to order the car in Europe although in November 2018, it was reported to be on sale in the Netherlands for €46 699, possibly as a way to reduce overall emissions of the cars sold by Opel/Vauxhall. Sales records show that, as of February 2019, fewer than 5,000 Ampera-e vehicles were ever delivered in the entirety of Europe. Even though the Ampera-e could be ordered and bought in the Netherlands in 2019, its steep price was still an issue. In early 2020, the importer lowered the price to €34,149. This was enough to put the car in the top 10 of bestselling cars in the country (regardless of the powertrain), and make it #1 among electric cars. However, the 2020 price reduction was an incentive to sell the remaining stock; as of 2020, Opel refuses to import any more Bolt/Ampera-e into the Netherlands and Germany.

Awards and recognition

The Bolt won the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year award, the 2017 North American Car of the Year, the 2017 AutoGuide.com Reader's Choice Green Car of the Year, 2017 Popular Mechanics Automotive Excellence Awards Car of the Year and the Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2017.

The Bolt also ended up Car & Driver's '10 Best Cars' list for 2017. The Chevy Bolt also won the 2017 Green Car of the Year awarded by the Green Car Journal. It was also named by Time among its list of 25 Best Inventions of 2016, and among Popular Science's 10 Greatest Automotive Innovations of 2016. The Bolt EV beat out the Cadillac CT6 and Jaguar XE to win the Detroit Free Press award for Car of the Year. Automobile included the Bolt in its 2017 All Star list.

Chevrolet Bolt EUV

Release

The Bolt EUV was introduced in February 2021, and released to the Mexican market on August 17, 2021. As the first EUVs were arriving at dealerships in August 2021, all vehicles were recalled to replace the traction battery; Bolt EV and EUV production was paused from November 2021 to April 2022, and fewer than 400 Bolts (both EV and EUV) were delivered before April.

It is the first Chevrolet vehicle to receive the hands-free Super Cruise driver-assistance package.

Unlike early versions of the Bolt EV, the battery for the Bolt EUV is manufactured in the United States at LG plants in Michigan.

Pricing and trims

The Chevrolet Bolt EUV had 3 trim levels when introduced in 2022, beginning with LT, which started at $33,000. The next pricing rung was Premier at $37,500. Last, there was the "special, limited-production" Launch Edition at $43,495.

For the 2023 model year, only the LT and Premier trims were offered, at $28,795 and $33,295, respectively. For an additional $495, either trim level could get the Redline Edition appearance package, which was also offered on several other Chevrolet models.

Specifications

Under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) five-cycle test methodology, the Bolt EV fuel economy is rated at:

115 mpg‑e (29 kW⋅h/100 mi) miles per gallon gasoline equivalent for combined driving

125 mpg‑e (27 kW⋅h/100 mi) in city driving

104 mpg‑e (32 kW⋅h/100 mi) in highway driving

The Bolt EUV's EPA-rated range for:

combined driving is 247 miles (398 km)

city driving is 267 miles (430 km)

highway driving is 223 miles (359 km)

The Bolt EUV can charge through the SAE J1772 connector using electric vehicle supply equipment connected to an AC power supply. A portable AC EVSE (made by Webasto) is included that can operate at Level 1 (8 or 12 amps) using the NEMA 5-15 dongle and Level 2 (32 amps) using the NEMA 14-50 dongle. A Level 1 charger supplying 120V at 8 amps adds around 2.8 miles (4.5 km) of range per hour, taking about 88 hours for a full charge. The maximum Level 1 charging rate at 12 amps, the average amperage of a North American household power outlet, adds around 4.0 miles (6.4 km) per hour, requiring approximately 62 hours for a complete charge. A Level 2 charger supplying 240V at 32 amps adds around 29 miles (47 km) per hour, taking about 9 hours to fully charge. The maximum Level 2 charging rate of 48 amps (11.5 kW) adds 44 miles (71 km) per hour, fully charging in about 6 hours.

The EUV is equipped with DC fast charging as standard, using a CCS Combo 1 plug with a maximum rate of 55 kW, and can add up to 95 miles (153 km) in the first 30 minutes.

The EUV has a wheelbase 2.9 in (74 mm) longer than the Bolt EV and is 6.3 in (160 mm) longer overall at 169.5 in (4,310 mm), increasing rear-seat legroom. The EPA interior volumes are 96.5 and 16.3 cu ft (2,733 and 462 L) for passenger and cargo space, respectively, which is slightly more, combined, than the Bolt EV. Although the cargo volume of the EUV is slightly smaller than the EV, this is due to the methodology of SAE J1100, the recommended practice used to compute volume; manufacturer testing demonstrated the EUV can hold more cargo.

Discontinuation

On April 25, 2023, GM CEO Mary Barra said that the Bolt and Bolt EUV would be discontinued at the end of 2023 to make room for GM's "new generation of electric vehicles." On July 25, 2023, GM announced it would continue production of the Bolt and will use Ultium and Ultifi technologies. It gave no details as to whether multiple body styles, such as the EUV, would return.

Production of the Bolt EUV ended on December 20, 2023.

A new version of the Bolt was to begin production in late 2025 for sale in mid-2026.

Second generation (2026)

A second generation Bolt was announced in December 2023, teased on July 30, 2025, and unveiled on October 9, 2025. Unlike the first generation, only the crossover body style of the Bolt EUV is offered for the second generation, and as a result the previously used "EV" and "EUV" suffixes are dropped.

The maximum charging speed on the second-generation Bolt has been increased to 150 kW, and GM claims a 10-80% charge time of 26 minutes. The 65 kWh battery pack now uses lithium iron phosphate chemistry, with an EPA-estimated range of 262 miles (422 km). The charging port was switched from CCS to NACS. Several parts are shared with the Equinox EV, including the sensor suite and the X76 permanent-magnet motor, which is slightly more powerful at 210 hp (157 kW), but has less torque than the 2023 models, at 169 lb⋅ft (229 N⋅m). A higher final drive reduction provides more torque at the wheels however. The car's weight increased by roughly 100 lb (45 kg) compared to the prior Bolt EUV. Like other Chevrolet EVs, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay were removed from the infotainment system. When used with a specific GM Home Energy charging station, the car has Vehicle-To-Home (V2H) capability and can supply power during a blackout.

The cars are manufactured at GM's Fairfax plant in Kansas. The battery cells are supplied by CATL.

Production has already been announced as terminating in mid-2027 after a planned 18 months of production.