One of the things that got so many people talking about the Chevrolet Bolt when it first launched was the EV’s range of 383 km. Since then, however, competitors have been engaged in an arms race and several offer over 400 km of full-charge range. It appears that General Motors has reacted and boosted the Bolt’s range for 2020.
Details included in an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) document reveal that the 2020 edition of the EV will get a range of 259 miles (416 km), or 21 miles (33 km) more than the outgoing model.
This puts the Chevy Bolt 1 mile ahead of the Hyundai Kona with its 258 miles (415 km), probably not by coincidence. For its part, the regular-range Tesla Model 3 sits at 240 miles (386 km), while Kia’s Soul EV and Niro EV deliver 243 miles (391 km) and 239 miles (384 km), respectively.
The gain is due mainly to the greater storage capacity of the battery in the 2020 Bolt, which will add between 5 and 10 kWh to the 60 kWh unit that has served the model since its beginnings.
GM has other electric vehicles in the pipeline, several of which will inherit the Bolt’s platform and inner organs. And now that the 400-km range barrier has been broken, we can expect that to become the new minimum for future GM EVs.
Our review of the 2019 Chevrolet Bolt