Chevrolet Bolt & Bolt EUV

[LeftieBiker]

I see no sign of a 2021 Leaf there, but they have several 2022 SV40s, at least one with Tech Package, for $31k after discounts and before the Federal credit.

[gcrouse]

Looks like the Bolt is on it's way out, which isn't surprising given the press around the recall - looks like they want to move on to the Ultium battery packs.

https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/ch ... roduction/

[cwerdna]

Indeed, there are a bunch of murmurings on chevybolt.org about this. It's possible and if so, its early demise would've been because of the battery recall. Otherwise, there'd have been no reason to the design and engineering work to refresh the Bolt EV and come out with the Bolt EUV to not even have it sell for an entire model year.

It really was a shame that they didn't improve the DC FC speed. 55 kW max on a ~65 kWh battery is simply not competitive for model year '22. If they were able to up to ~70ish kW, at least it'd be competitive w/Kona EV and Niro EV.

When Orion plant went online briefly in Nov 2021 to produce what GM claimed were "courtesy" vehicles, which we thought were loaners (https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ ... 549367002/), apparently, some (all?) of those cars (which are supposed to have "defect-free" of fire batteries) are being offered to folks to swap into (e.g. https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/just- ... euv.42024/ and https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/msrp- ... 2lt.41955/).

[gcrouse]

Honestly, i still see it as a decent competitor to am extent - other than the leaf it's got among the lower starting prices with a decent amount of range.

If the expanded EV tax credit manages to pass in some form during the current administration (which I'm still pretty pessimistic about), it would be highly considerable as long as I can fit my greyhound in the back the way i do with the Leaf - it looks like it would be a tighter fit for him though.

Lack of tax credit is a bit of a deal breaker for me though because as long as I could afford monthly payments, i could make pretty good use of $7500 of my tax money back. That's probably my biggest tension point for next vehicle since I'm worried about how many manufacturers are going to hit the limit before I'm ready to purchase around 2025/26 and a general expectation my 30kw battery will probably manage to gracefully degrade right along Nissan's expectations. I'll have it paid of in 2023 but I could really go for a couple of years with no car payments.

[GRA]

Indeed, there are a bunch of murmurings on chevybolt.org about this. It's possible and if so, its early demise would've been because of the battery recall. Otherwise, there'd have been no reason to the design and engineering work to refresh the Bolt EV and come out with the Bolt EUV to not even have it sell for an entire model year.

It really was a shame that they didn't improve the DC FC speed. 55 kW max on a ~65 kWh battery is simply not competitive for model year '22. If they were able to up to ~70ish kW, at least it'd be competitive w/Kona EV and Niro EV. <snip>

Agreed. Going forward, I think any new BEV with a max. charge rate under 1.5C and 1C for the average rate simply isn't going to cut it, and more is better. Still, I think the Bolt's fine for a daily use and occasional shorter weekend trip car for most people. Personally, I'd prefer an AWD wagon/CUV between the length of the EUV and the Equinox. The new Niro is the car that really should offer AWD, and I'm also hoping Kia will use an 800V pack in it. I think 260 miles EPA is the minimum going forward for newly introduced all-around BEVs (given the Bolt/Kona's 259/258), and the sooner someone offers 300 (better yet 300 HWY) EPA or more for under $40k MSRP+dest., the better.

[cwerdna]

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ ... 794987001/ says "On Tuesday, GM said it will restart production of its Chevrolet Bolt and Bolt EUV April 4 as it continues to fix defective batteries as part of a global recall on the cars."

[cwerdna]

Chevy Bolt EV, EUV Resume Production after Battery Recall
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3963 ... roduction/

[GRA]

IEVS:

62% Of 2017 To 2019 Chevrolet Bolts Have Had Their Battery Replaced
The information comes from an NHTSA document that shows replacement rates among newer Bolts are far lower, though.

https://insideevs.com/news/582844/repor ... placement/

. . . According to this report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), discovered by one of our new forum members, Lee Lightfoot, Chevrolet has already replaced the battery pack in 62 percent of affected Bolts built under the 2017 through 2019 model years. Chevy says that last quarter it changed 26,952 battery packs.

If it keeps it up at the same rate, all Bolts built through the 2019 model year will have been fixed (some 50,413 examples are affected). Another document issued for 2021 through 2022 model year affected Chevy Bolts shows that these newer cars haven’t received new batteries yet - just 701 swaps were performed out of a total 52,414 pool of affected vehicles.

Most of the cost of the replacement batteries (around $1.9-billion out of a total estimated cost of $2-billion) will be supported by LG Chem, the company that supplied the packs to General Motors. It also worked with the manufacturer to discover the problems that cause the fires, which were eventually narrowed down to possible broken anode tab or a folded separator.

Owners of Bolt EVs equipped with the new battery are also reporting a range increase with the fresh pack. When our own Tom Moloughney took part in a range test of a Bolt with a newly replaced battery, he found that post swap it was able to travel for around 13.5 percent longer than before.

As it previously announced, Chevrolet restarted Bolt EV and Bolt EUV production at the start of April and all new vehicles feature the fixed battery pack, the one that is now being installed in older Bolts.

[cwerdna]

Yeah, the below are for US cars only.
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2021/R ... 0-6381.PDF - 880 is for '17 to '19
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2021/R ... 0-2776.PDF - 940 is for '20 to '22

There is some ambiguity about the latter. New dealer unsold '20 to '22 Bolts when their VINs are eligible are being flipped to 943 instead of 941 (for customer cars). I would think that the above 940 report should include repaired 941 and 943 cars but we're not 100% certain.

Someone decided to start https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/gm-re ... 022.43435/ instead of adding to https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/recal ... 1-3.41181/.