Why General Motors is pulling the plug on the Chevy Bolt

General Motors is no longer producing the Chevrolet Bolt, a popular electric vehicle.

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Mary Barra, GM's CEO, said yesterday that the company will cease production of its Bolt model by the end of the year.

Both the Chevy Bolt Electric Vehicle (released in late 2016) and the larger EUV Electric Utility Vehicle (introduced in 2021) are being discontinued, but not because of a lack of demand. The sales of mass-market models are at record levels. Barra stated that the batteries in the cars were outdated.

Bolt EV batteries are older in design and chemistry. GM's Ultium Architecture is used in more recent EV models such as the GMC Hummer, Cadillac Lyriq and GMC Hummer. These newer battery packs cost nearly 40% less than the Chevrolet Bolt.

"When the Chevrolet Bolt EV was launched, it marked a major technical achievement, and the first affordable EV. It set GM's future of all-electric in motion."

--Chad Lyons, a Chevy spokesperson

GM expects to produce 70,000 Bolts this year

$24,000 is the starting price for the Chevy Bolt. It's one of the cheapest EVs on the market and it gets even cheaper thanks to the $7,500 EV credit offered by the Biden administration. GM plans to compensate for the loss of this model, which will impact the affordability of EVs. The upcoming Equinox EV from GM will reportedly start at a similar price this fall.

When the Orion plant in Michigan, which produces Bolts currently, is retooled, it will produce 600,000 electric trucks annually. The facility will be repurposed in 2024 and reopened.

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GM's annual EV production target is 1 million by 2025 as it tries to catch up with Tesla.

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