We Drive the $30K Chevy Bolt, GM’s Tesla-Walloping Electric Car
FOR NEARLY TWO years, General Motors has promised that the Chevrolet Bolt, its affordable, long-range electric car, would deliver at least 200 miles on a charge and cost no more than $30,000 after the requisite federal tax credit.
Those two numbers are in many ways the Bolt’s raison d’être, because they are widely seen as the key to overcoming range anxiety—the fear of being stranded with a dead battery—and pushing electric vehicles into the mainstream. “The 200-mile mark is huge, it’s a huge thing in customers’ minds,” says Josh Tavel, the Bolt’s chief engineer. “They believe they need it. So we gave it to ’em, in surplus.”
Indeed. The EPA pegs the Bolt’s range at 238 miles, General Motors announced today. I saw even more driving a pre-production Bolt down the California coast from Monterey to Santa Barbara. I put the car in park having added 239.9 miles to the odometer, and the range indicator said the battery had another 23 miles to go.
Nicely done, GM.
wired.com
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