GM’s North American President Alan Batey has confirmed that the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle will begin shipping to dealers in the fourth quarter of this year.
GM and Chevrolet have not yet released the vehicle’s expected range or price, so we still only know that it will have “more than 200 miles” range, and will be somewhere around $37,500 before incentives.
The Bolt EV is a crossover-type platform with seating for 5 and lots of interior space. Batey said “This is on the leading edge of technology. This is preparing ourselves for tomorrow and the future. This isn’t going to be the best-selling vehicle. It was never designed to be our best selling. This was designed for us to be able to get out, to be able to real world, to continue our leadership.”
GM is planning to sell the Bolt EV in all 50 States and in Canada, with other countries to follow in 2017. Some analysts predict sales of the Bolt could reach 30,000 in 2017.
Batey also mentioned that since the Bolt will be out before the Tesla Model 3, that will give them opportunity for 18 months of real world experience over the competitor’s vehicle.
I live in Ottawa Canada , I just put deposit for bolt at my gm dealer
I’m excited to drive this car and reduce the emission in our earth
Thanks for sharing! Was this a deposit with a delivery date, or just a ‘put money down and you can be first in line when it gets here’ sort of thing?
I think it’s great, and the Bolt will be better than my LEAF, but I still couldn’t use it to drive from Niagara to Montreal, as I intend to do with my TESLA model 3. Nissan has really fallen asleep after such a great EV start. As a first-time EVer, this Bolt will fulfill most needs.
Alan Batey says in this article, “This is preparing ourselves for tomorrow and the future. This isn’t going to be the best-selling vehicle. It was never designed to be our best selling. This was designed for us to be able to get out, to be able to real world, to continue our leadership.”
Why is GM not designing ONLY best-selling vehicles? This is the same “stuck in the mud” mentality that has kept pushing the “future” technology further and further into the future…
So, the Bolt will be a very limited production, designed to fail model. They (GM) will then report that due to disappointing sales (not enough electric cars produced to satisfy demand), the Bolt will be marketed as an “alternative” to our best selling ICE cars… And on and on it goes.
Tesla-killer… I think not.
I hope that I am wrong, but the “future” is here, not 10-20 years down the road.
Get with it GM. People are ready for “real-world” electric vehicles – now!
Cheers all,
Gordon