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- GM announces the end of production of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Chevrolet Bolt EUV.
- The plant that produces the models will be retooled to produce the company's electric pickup trucks.
- The Bolt EV has been offered by Chevrolet since 2017; the Bolt EUV since 2022.
The year 2023 will be the last for the Chevrolet Bolt EV, as ,ell as the SUV variant launched less than two years ago, the Bolt EUV. Yesterday, General Motors (GM) announced that it will cease production of both models by the end of 2023.
GM CEO Mary Barra confirmed this during a conference call with investors, explaining in passing that the Orion Assembly Plant in Michigan would soon have to be retooled to build the company's electric pickup trucks as early as next year.
It will have been a short history of the Bolt, which, remember, made its debut for the 2017 model year. At the time, it was competing with the Tesla Model 3 to offer consumers a more affordable car with a respectable range of around 400 km. Sales of the model have been decent over the years, but never the goals GM had set. Let's just say that the Tesla Model 3 has left them in the dust in that regard. Still, Chevrolet sold about 20,000 units a year.
The best sales year was 2022, when just over 40,000 units were sold in the United States and Canada. At that time, the model was redesigned and significant price cuts were announced.
The Bolt's history was also marked by the battery problem with supplier LG, which forced GM to halt production for several months. Obviously, this did not help.
But to understand the decision, you have to look beyond that. The Bolt's technology is already outdated as GM prepares to launch a line of vehicles based on the new Ultium platform. And it's not as if buyers will be left without alternatives. A certain Chevrolet Equinox EV is due to debut next year, and the company is obviously banking heavily on that model.
Mary Barra predicted that the Orion plant will be able to assemble 600,000 pickups a year when it's at full capacity. Electric versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra are expected to be available by the end of this year and early 2024, respectively.
