GM Disappoints Again

[Gregski]

this may be old news to some of you but here it goes, I got an Uber ride today in a Chevy Bolt and I thought wow this things is much bigger than I imagined, that's when I learned, there are two kinds of the Bolt the EV and the EUV (the U stands for bigger) and I recon I was in the bigger model and it was fantastic, I chatted up the driver and quickly learned he has a range of over 250 miles and luvs the thing

so I get home and decide to check them out on the GM's website and they have zero Bolts listed under their Electric Vehicles, so I do some Altavisting and quickly learn these idiots Killed Da Bolt !!!

GM Finds Old Roads: Kills The Chevy Bolt Again, Low-Priced Alternative To Tesla Model Y

EVs are too expensive. But there are exceptions. The Chevy Bolt is (was) an outstanding exception.

But General Motors, which never misses a chance to blunder in EVs, has stopped production of the Chevy Bolt as of mid-December 2023 and, partially as a consequence, laid off over 1,300 workers (via Electrek).

GM claims that it will bring the Bolt back, based on its Ultium EV platform, in 2025. Don’t hold your breath.

Truth be told, GM has made a series of galactically stupid decisions about EVs over the years. The company seems hell bent not to succeed in EVs (despite its slogan of “Find New Roads”).

Advice for GM: Don’t stop making the current Chevy Bolt. Even if it violates some sacred oath that GM bean counters have taken.

But I’m just a dumb consumer and not privy to the infinite wisdom of GM’s executive team. So let me quote from Motor Trend.

“Sales of the Bolt have doubled this year and far outstrip sales of the more expensive and premium EVs already based on the newer Ultium EV platform, including the GMC Hummer EV and Hummer SUV, and the Cadillac Lyriq.”

This week I visited a Chevy dealer and a Cadillac dealer. Both in Los Angeles. Both were pushing $60,000 EVs. The Chevy dealer had the $60,000 Chevy Blazer EV front and center. The Cadillac dealer had the $60,000 Lyriq. Ironically, neither (of the models for sale currently) have one of GM’s most outstanding technologies: Super Cruise.

I say ironically because Super Cruise — an advanced hands-free driver assist technology — is available on the much cheaper Chevy Bolt EUV.

A Great Deal While It Lasts
But there are ways to get around GM’s foolishness while Chevy Bolt EUV inventory is still around.

Here’s the deal: So, you can get a very good hands-free driver assist technology on the Chevy Bolt EUV Premier (approx. $38,000 with Super Cruise) for about $10,000 less than FSD costs on a Model Y. Not to mention the tens of thousands you would save by not going with the Chevy Blazer EV or Cadillac Lyriq.

And even if you don’t opt for the Bolt EUV Premier, the Bolt EUV LT starts at under $30,000. A new Model Y starts at about $42,000 and, for comparison sake, the Rivian R1S SUV starts at just under $80,000.

The EV market is demanding an affordable electric SUV. It’s not demanding a $60,000 Blazer or Lyriq.

The Bolt EUV answers that call in spades, despite GM’s inanity.

[Bratitude]

The demand might be there but the economics of the supply aren’t yet.

Tesla is one of the only ones making money on there cars, the bolt is a loser for gm.

The comparison between a mY, R1s and a bolt euv are pretty unfair, r1s is an electric Range Rover. The bolt is a budget suv.


I’m not even sure the bolt has liquid cooling for the batteries

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

The Bolt Blunder is a classic case of too clever by half. From everything I've read GM's plan was to have the cheapest of the EV Equinox and EV Blazer already in production before the Bolt stopped production, and the Bolt's plant would be converted to their EV trucks. It was going to be a well timed swap and as a legacy automaker shifting capacity at various plants is totally normal.

Now, in theory, that would have been a good plan. But they utterly failed on execution.

It looks like the EV Silverado (or EValanche as it should have been called) is really, really good. If I had $75k it would be the perfect truck for my needs. 410 miles of range means roughly 200 miles with a trailer, which would be the right amount of time on the road between stops when hauling my nonsense to various races, or picking up new bad ideas.

The EV versions of the crossovers look to be good for what they are, and I actually like the idea of offering customers FWD, AWD, or RWD all in the same platform.

From everything I have found, GM seems to have some major issue with the Ultium platform and battery availability. They've been very hush hush about it, but they cannot seem to produce their new EVs at volume, which as an established automaker should be their greatest strength. I assume in 5-10 years we'll learn of some major design or production issue that caused this bottle neck. Add in that they seem to have gotten addicted to the profit margins on crossovers, and they killed a good but (starting to be) dated platform without a ready replacement.


TLDR: Not having a cheap EV wasn't the original plan, and they've failed to adjust.