GM will discontinue the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV electric cars at the end of 2023, GM CEO Mary Barra told investors on Tuesday. The Orion Assembly plant used to make the Bolt EVs will shift production to electric trucks such as the Silverado EV that use GM’s more sophisticated Ultium propulsion system.
The announcement about the end of the Bolt EV comes when it is experiencing its third consecutive quarter of record deliveries, Barra said in a LinkedIn post. She also called this a “breakout year for GM EVs and the Ultium Platform.”
That marks the end of one of the most affordable electric cars and a pacesetter for the nascent electric car market when it launched in 2017. It won City Dwellers’ Best Car To Buy 2017 for its high range and affordable price, at the time.
Back then, the Bolt EV cost $37,495. Last year, in June, Chevy slashed the price of the Bolt EV and larger Bolt EUV to $26,595 and $28,195, respectively, making them the most affordable electric cars with a relatively long range of 259 miles (247 for the EUV). Both Bolts employ a 65-kwh battery pack.
The price cut aimed to both spotlight the Bolt EV’s affordability at a time when the average new car price exceeded $46,000 and to draw back customers in the wake of a widespread battery fire recall. GM paused production of the Bolt EV and Bolt EUV for six months while it identified the reasons for the fires, and ultimately had to replace battery modules on certain models and expand the recall to every Bolt EV made, which totaled about 141,000 vehicles in North America.
GM raised the price this year by $900 once the federal EV tax credit of $7,500 was reinstated as part of the revised Inflation Reduction Act. That makes the 2023 Chevy Bolt EV and EUV at least half the price of most other electric cars, except for the Nissan Leaf.
