General Motors has an entire EV family brewing across many of its brands, and of course, the most substantial lineup is reserved for the Chevrolet brand. However, it also needs a great entry-level hook to thrive, not just survive.
General Motors first catered to the high-end areas of the EV market with the GMC Hummer EV and left the entry-level job for the old and obsolete Chevrolet Bolt and Bolt EUV. Now, there's an entire roster of EVs from Chevy, including the Silverado EV WT and RST, the Blazer EV, plus the Equinox EV – but the Bolt is nowhere to be found.
That's because General Motors decided the two little Volts would have to retire in order to make way for the other representatives of the novel EV lifestyle. No worries, even though GM ended production in 2023, the Bolt nameplate won't stay decommissioned for long. Last summer, during the second-quarter conference call, CEO and chair Mary Barra revealed that Chevy was already planning an all-new Bolt.
At the time, no one knew if both the little hatchback and the slightly more practical crossover SUV would come back – but it seems that the dice has been thrown, and only the EUV will return to sit alongside the $35k Equinox EV in the lower bottom of the EV board tucked below the Blazer EV and Silverado EVs. According to the rumor mill, the new iteration won't join the BEV3 family but rather feature a heavily revised variant of the BEV II platform – they decided for that approach to reduce the development time.
However, the Ultium technologies might still be present on the Bolt because the EUV allows for a more technological approach than its hatchback sibling. Releasing it like that will help GM lower the development costs, bring it to market about two years faster than an all-new model, and ultimately impact the MSRP because affordability is the name of the EV game as far as the Bolt is concerned.
More so, the next Bolt could be the first General Motors vehicle using LFP technology for the battery pack, and GM could also bring it to market with a heat pump to alleviate cold weather concerns along with a standard NACS charging port to take advantage of Tesla's Supercharger network across North America. As for pricing, it might arrive at around $27k to make it a truly affordable EV and possibly America's cheapest zero-emissions model.
Also, while we're at it discussing the latest rumors, the latest behind-the-rumor-mill video from the TopElectricSUV channel on YouTube feels ready to give us the full scoop on the potential Chevy Bolt arrival complete with a few colorful options for the unofficial rendering prepared by their resident pixel master. What do you think?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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