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The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

bloomberg.com

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Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#11

Post by 5ilv3r »

torinmr wrote: post #9
5ilv3r wrote: post #6

So a leaf with a +20 mile upgrade would beat it easily in everything including ugly points? Neat. Way to flop again, GM. I've got a crumby idea: How about a long range EV with a dual pack system, like a dual tank pickup truck. You could get away with half the charger and half the wire capacity, and still get nearly 2x the range.

Where'd you get +20 miles from? The Leaf has a 108 mile range, the Bolt has a 238 mile range - that's a huge difference.

I must have misheard the sales guy when I test drove one. Thought he said 180.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#12

Post by vvanders »

Qub3d wrote: post #2

The Title of the actual article already points out why GM still hasn't "beaten Tesla to the punch": The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the (Very Near) Future. Tesla has a fanclub because they're making electric cars into a sports brand. Motor Trend asked a bunch of current Tesla owners (and model 3 reservees) what they thought of it. The general consensus was "moving in the right direction, but not enough to make me s…

There's also the supercharger network which is often glossed over but pretty critical when you're considering it as a primary car.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#14

Post by krschultz »

Boiling it down to the core point, "the Bolt will let GM sell more swanky Silverado pickups at much fatter margins without paying penalties or buying credits from competitors".

It's important to know that fuel mileage regulations are calculated on a fleet basis, not per model. So manufacturers are actually trading off optimizations across their entire product line. The Bolt is just an iteration on the existing strategy of using cheap small cars to offset the emissions from larger (higher margin) trucks.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#15

Post by drewg123 »

One of the Bolt’s best features is a regenerative braking paddle behind the wheel, which simultaneously slows the car and recharges the battery when pulled.

So their tech is so crude that there is no regenerative braking built into the standard floor mounted brake pedal? Even my 2006 Prius does regenerative braking based of the brake pedal, with no need for such hacks.

Is there any fast recharge system for these? Eg, does GM have a supercharger network? If I buy a Bolt, can I purchase / rent access to the Tesla superchargers? Or is the tech different?

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#16

Post by 5ilv3r »

FussyZeus wrote: post #8

Tesla proved that eco-minded cars didn't need to be ugly, yet ALL other manufacturers continue to produce only ugly cars (they don't get points for bootstrapping hybrid models of existing cars). I am amazed none of the other purveyors of electric cars have managed to figure this out. Even the BMW offering ranks high on the "God what the hell" scale in terms of its design. The Prius started this stupid trend of cars f…

Most companies try to keep their high end products as profitable as possible.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#17

Post by codeulike »

FussyZeus wrote: post #8

Tesla proved that eco-minded cars didn't need to be ugly, yet ALL other manufacturers continue to produce only ugly cars (they don't get points for bootstrapping hybrid models of existing cars). I am amazed none of the other purveyors of electric cars have managed to figure this out. Even the BMW offering ranks high on the "God what the hell" scale in terms of its design. The Prius started this stupid trend of cars f…

The Nissan Leaf looks about the same as other Nissan cars - check out the Note or Juke. And I think the Bolt looks fine. You just have a weird fear of hatchbacks in the USA.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#18

Post by rl3 »

FussyZeus wrote: post #8

Tesla proved that eco-minded cars didn't need to be ugly, yet ALL other manufacturers continue to produce only ugly cars (they don't get points for bootstrapping hybrid models of existing cars). I am amazed none of the other purveyors of electric cars have managed to figure this out. Even the BMW offering ranks high on the "God what the hell" scale in terms of its design. The Prius started this stupid trend of cars f…

I sometimes wonder what the industrial designers on these things are smoking. Are they really that bad, or does someone above their pay grade just have no taste at all?

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#19

Post by RKoutnik »

This article (like many) misses why people buy Teslas. Teslas are amazing cars that just happen to be electric - not the other way around. The large car companies think that "electric" is enough to sell a car, whereas Tesla knows they need luxury options, autopilot & the supercharger network.

I've got a Model 3 reservation myself and wouldn't even think of switching to the Bolt. I want a nice car, not just an electric one, and Tesla's got that in spades.

Re: The Chevy Bolt Is the Ugly Car of the Near Future

#20

Post by kr7 »

If GM loses $9,000 on a $30,000 sale, that puts production costs at $39,000. The battery costs $9,000, so the car without the battery costs $30,000 to make.

The Sonic starts at $15,000, which seems to be the ICE equivalent of the Bolt.

Are they counting R&D costs? If not, why would Bolt cost $15,000 more (not counting the battery) than the Sonic? Is GM selling the Sonic at a $15,000 loss?

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