General Motors surprised investors — and electric vehicle fans — when it said in July that the little Chevrolet Bolt EV will be revamped, rather than killed off entirely at the end of 2023 as originally planned…
…GM had originally planned to launch a series of newly designed EVs in entry-level segments at a total cost of around $5 billion. But given the popularity of the current Bolt — 2023 is already the model’s best year ever for sales — it made sense to revamp the existing car instead.
To be clear, the Bolt will be on hiatus for a while. GM still plans to end production of the current Bolt at its Michigan factory at the end of this year, and it hasn’t yet said when the revamped model will go on sale — or where it’ll be made. The Bolt’s current factory in Michigan will be retooled to make electric versions of GM’s Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks.
But with durable and relatively inexpensive lithium-iron phosphate battery cells, GM’s improved Ultium platform and latest software and NACS charging ports that will allow it to use Tesla’s Supercharger network, the new Bolt looks set to continue to win new buyers.
