• The Chevrolet Bolt EV will return to the lineup for 2025.
The year 2023 was certainly a strange one for the Chevrolet Bolt EV. In the spring, we learned that the model would be withdrawn from the market. Then the company announced that it would continue its career after all, but on General Motors' (GM) new Ultium platform.
The current Bolt, which launched for 2017, is built on an older architecture that GM is about to pack away. All the brand's new electric models will be based on the Ultium platform.
It might sit on an aging platform, but the Bolt EV has seen its sale go up sharply this year. Compared to 2022, sales were up 125 percent after the third quarter of the year. A big part of that, of course, is that’s it’s one of the few “affordable” electric vehicles out there.
See also: 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV Review: One Year Later
Production of the current model is due to end this month. We knew it would be some time before the next generation appeared. GM CEO Mary Barra has now confirmed that the model will return in 2025.
Speaking at the Automotive Press Association meeting in Detroit, Barra reiterated that one of the reasons behind the decision to bring back the model is that it is so much appreciated by its owners.
No specifications regarding the powertrain or range of the new Bolt are yet known. According to Mary Barra's statement, the battery that will equip the next model should keep vehicle costs down, even when switching to the Ultium platform. This is essential to the model's future success.
The Bolt EV is currently priced at just under $40,000 in Canada.
The current generation is assembled at GM's Orion plant in Michigan, but the future model could be produced at the Fairfax, Kansas facility, in view of the agreement in principle reached between the UAW (United Auto Workers) and GM, which includes a $391 million investment in that plant for a “future electric vehicle”. Unnamed sources who spoke to Reuters said the upgrades the Fairfax facility could be intended for production of the next-generation Bolt.
What remains to be seen is the precise timing of the model's arrival. Are we talking about a 2024 launch as a 2025 model, or a late arrival in 2025? Stay tuned.