Bolt on cover of "New Roads"
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Here's the accompanying article: https://www.chevrolet.com/new-roads/electric/electric-means-business
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I have a friend in Phoenix that has a service related business. They need to be able to travel around the metropolitan area quickly with just one person and some equipment in the car. Phoenix has a lot of HOV lanes. The Bolt is allowed to use them with only one person in the car. He started with a Leaf and has now added the Bolt. While Phoenix traffic is not as bad as LA or Seattle, it can be very difficult during the morning and evening commute times.
It is good to see that Chevy has put the Bolt EV on the cover of New Roads.
Now it would be nice if GM and their dealers actually tried to advertise and sell these cars!
I just looked and there are exactly 2 Bolt EV's available within a 30 mile radius of Youngstown, Ohio.
We also have a home in Atlantis, Florida. Checked there as well. There are 6 Bolt EV's within a 30 mile radius.
When is the last time anyone here saw any GM promotion for a Bolt via mail, email, TV, radio, or print? It seems GM has done everything possible to hide these cars from sale.
But I see that it is again "TRUCK MONTH"!!! It makes me want to vomit.
Note to GM:
My Bolt EV lease is up in January, 2021. If you don't have anything new to offer, you are going to lose my business to another manufacturer. I have been faithful. I have a 2011 Volt and a 2017 Bolt. But all I hear from you is talk about how electrification is the future of GM. It is time to put out a real time frame and show specific models. And a group of electric cars only available in China doesn't count!
It is time to show me that you really want my business. It is yours to lose, because I am starting to feel very neglected........
Jim I - Very Happy 2012 Volt & 2017 Bolt EV Owner
Now it would be nice if GM and their dealers actually tried to advertise and sell these cars!
I just looked and there are exactly 2 Bolt EV's available within a 30 mile radius of Youngstown, Ohio.
We also have a home in Atlantis, Florida. Checked there as well. There are 6 Bolt EV's within a 30 mile radius.
When is the last time anyone here saw any GM promotion for a Bolt via mail, email, TV, radio, or print? It seems GM has done everything possible to hide these cars from sale.
But I see that it is again "TRUCK MONTH"!!! It makes me want to vomit.
Note to GM:
My Bolt EV lease is up in January, 2021. If you don't have anything new to offer, you are going to lose my business to another manufacturer. I have been faithful. I have a 2011 Volt and a 2017 Bolt. But all I hear from you is talk about how electrification is the future of GM. It is time to put out a real time frame and show specific models. And a group of electric cars only available in China doesn't count!
It is time to show me that you really want my business. It is yours to lose, because I am starting to feel very neglected........
Jim I - Very Happy 2012 Volt & 2017 Bolt EV Owner
Let us know which make/model you feel provides more desired features than the Bolt EV. My wife's hybrid Kia Niro has adaptive cruise control and "lane keep assist" rather than "lane departure warning". For me, faster L-3 charging rates would be the tipping point (even more than a larger traction battery). 50 kW (at low SoC) is puny. I don't need 250 kW, but 100 kW would be nice!
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You're from the Yo? I grew up around Youngstown and did my undergrad at YSU (ChemE). Now that EA has put in two stations along I-80 in PA, I might try to make the journey from NJ to OH in the Bolt.
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Don't get me wrong. I think the Bolt EV is an amazing vehicle. Even my wife loves driving it!
As of today, I still think the Bolt EV has the best bang for the buck in any EV that is available nationwide. Until the Hyundai and the KIA are available everywhere in the USA, they are just compliance vehicles.
But for the 2021 model year, if that is all that is still available from GM, they are going to be very behind.
Here is my wish list:
It needs adaptive cruise.
It should have a much nicer interior.
It should have electric seats, at least for the driver with memory.
It should have an electric tailgate.
It should have wireless Android Auto.
OTA updates that add new features for existing models has to become the normal.
The only other thing I like about my 2012 Volt that the 2017 Bolt does not have is Homelink for the garage door
IMHO, the tipping point for range is 300 miles to get the average ICE buyer to switch.
I am fine with the interior space of the Bolt. I realize that some hate the front seats...
And the price can't go above $55K. If they make an $80K Caddy version of the Bolt it will go over as well as the ELR did with the Volt.
I think the charge rate has to do with battery chemistry and longevity. GM went with 'safe' (slower charge speeds, liquid cooling) rather than 'fast'. Much is made of the "40% loss in 8 years" warranty on the battery, but that seems a very, very much worst-case scenario, as there are vehicles with over 75K miles that have lost less than 10%. Frankly, the DCFC rate limit is just fine if it means that the 96% of the time usage means that I'll have 85-90% of the range in 8 years. (Yes, I myself have railed about the slow charging rate - but I just don't use the Bolt as a long-distance vehicle.) Trade-offs.
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Nobody would have paid any where near $80k for a gasoline version of the ELR, that was the problem. Plenty of people pay over $80k for Cadillacs though.. they are called Escalades. Nobody is going to pay what it would cost for an EV version of the 2019 ATS.. what they need to do is build a $150k Escalade BEV. When "the best" is a BEV that is when perceptions can change. As Tesla showed us with their $100k sedan. Actually in this category, the more limited the run and the more expensive they make it, that could actually HELP drive demand.
GM has millions of customers to satisfy every year, and those customers are voting for pickup trucks and family size SUV's - not for a token EV. The shareholders, the UAW and the gov't are on board with this trend, too, because their revenues are derived from GM profits today not from a vague "electrified future".
Like I said somewhere else, if the subsidies and other blatantly market-distorting incentives were removed, we'd only have Tesla and a bunch of specialty/boutique EV manufacturers, and they would gradually perfect the tech, with a little help from here and there, until every Bumpkin, Yokel and Co (including GM) can replicate it.
Natural competition and purpose-driven investments into R&D will drive the progress a lot harder than the legislative meddling in the creation of the new generation powertrain.
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I guess my problem with that thinking is that if GM says the future of the company is electrification, then selling a few thousand $150K Escalades per year is not going to make it mainstream.
And the recent push to selling almost nothing but SUVs and trucks is fine as long as gasoline is $2.50/gal. What position is GM going to be in the next time gas goes to $4.50? All those truck buyers are going to want something else that they can afford to fuel and GM will have nothing available in quantity. And if everyone thinks this gas price is permanent, they are just living in denial.....
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I enjoyed the articles on the fleet vehicles in New Roads. It's funny to see the Yerba Mate fleet vehicles because I one of them quite often at my local grocery store where we sometimes charge side by side; I've seen it running around town doing deliveries too. Also it's nice to see some other applications around town where I work a few miles away like GIG Care share; now that fleet is getting into the hundreds so they're everywhere in downtown Sacramento. It's truly a changing landscape around here. Also like the "Yellow Cab" Bolt fleet. I think people complain so much about GM's commitment to EVs but I think GM is being pretty realistic and fair to their shareholders. Sure I wish they were a bit more aggressive about marketing EVs but let's face it; outside of Tesla there really hasn't been a major consumer demand; witnessed that GM isn't selling out BoltEVs. I wish it was different but this is an evolving landscape. GM isn't an EV cult like Tesla; it's a different game plan for GM. Sorry I got off track a bit thinking about Nikki's video today on Transport Evolved.
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Yeah but they could turn a profit on them. Not to mention having the most exclusive, quickest, quietest, luxurious Escalade 'halo variant' as the BEV version would be a good thing for the image of EVs.
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