Yeah, it reads like a compliance vehicle. They know they’ll lose money hand over fist, so they made it as much of a nerd pod as possible.
(And there’s a market for nerd pods. See: Prius. But that ain’t Chevy’s market, no sir.)
(And there’s a market for nerd pods. See: Prius. But that ain’t Chevy’s market, no sir.)
GM sells & markets the Bolt (and formerly the Volt) in all states and provinces of North America. Which is more than you can say for most manufacturers. It's really just a family of Tesla, GM, and Nissan, and of those two only GM and Tesla have taken battery temp management and lifespans seriously.
GM's EV engineering is up there with Tesla. They are not producing compliance cars.
Unlike Tesla they are responsible to their shareholders, and have to pay a dividend. So they make and sell what is profitable. The EV thing, they are limited by battery supplies and market demand, but they are well positioned to do better than the others once those obstacles are surmounted.
The Bolt is a good vehicle. It's not in a form factor I love, but the tech in it is excellent.
I don't know of much reason to spend high capital to create a production line, and then take a loss per unit sold other then for compliance.
[1]https://www.hotcars.com/gm-admits-bolt-not-profitable/
[2]https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/06/gm-doesnt-expect-to-make-mon...
Tesla consistently has a larger loss per vehicle, and unlike GM there is no actual profit center to compensate if the government subsidies happen to dry up.
https://tesla-cdn.thron.com/delivery/public/document/tesla/3...
They could cut the $330 million in R&D costs too, but i don't think they should given their niche.
Suddenly switch to a new type of power train and combine that with small volumes and I’m not surprised in the least it crazy expensive.
Can they use the supercharger network? Or are they restricted to shower charging on road trips?
The bolt fast charges at 50kW up to about 40%, then gradually drops to 35kW at 55% charge state. After that the charge rate drops off horrifically, to less than 10kW above 80%.
It's a compliance car designed for city driving only.