GM’s EV plans begin to take shape with the new low-priced Chevy Bolts

DETROIT – General Motors’ pivot to become a fully electric vehicle company by 2035 is starting to take shape as the automaker prepares to launch two Chevrolet Bolt models this summer, ahead of a $ 113,000 GMC Hummer EV pickup later this year.

All-electric bolts – a redesigned hatchback and a new crossover – will start at $ 34,000. They are the beginning of what GM expects to be a complete line of “affordable” EVs as the company builds scale to reduce the costs of its next generation electric vehicles, like the Hummer, with new battery systems and platforms.

“If you take a look at what the GMC Hummer EV stands for and what the Bolt EVs in the body can be represented for,” said Jesse Ortega, GM’s chief engineer for battery electric vehicle architecture, during a news conference. “It really gives us the solid bookends we are capable of.”

It is a dual approach to serving the conventional and luxury markets. The price difference between these “bookends” comes down mainly to vehicle battery technologies. The Bolt models are on the automaker’s current EV platform and feature batteries that offer less autonomy than GM’s next-generation Ultium platform and batteries, which will debut on the Hummer EV.

All three vehicles are part of the automaker’s plan to launch 30 new or redesigned electric vehicles by 2025 under a $ 27 billion investment plan in electric and autonomous vehicles.

“You can see the intentional strategy we have here,” said Tony Johnson, Chevrolet’s director of marketing. “The purpose of these two offerings is to really go after the main street and really start spreading EV adoption across the board. The other brands within the company, obviously, each has its own role to play in our journey here. “

GM currently has no plans to move the Bolts to the next generation platform, Ortega said.

GM CEO Mary Barra and President Mark Reuss said the company’s next generation vehicles will be profitable, unlike the Bolt EV. Johnson and other GM employees declined to comment on whether the Bolt models launched later this year will be profitable.

After being on the market for four years, GM’s engineering team did a “phenomenal job of driving quality, generating consistency and eliminating system costs,” said Johnson. According to him, the advances led the company to lower the price of Bolt.

The new 2022 Bolt utility vehicle will start at $ 33,995. This compares to the Bolt EV, which will start at $ 31,995 – more than $ 5,000 less than the 2021 model.

Profitable or not, the vehicles give GM an EV priced below other competitors, such as the $ 43,000 Ford Mustang Mach-E crossover (before a federal tax credit of up to $ 7,500 that buyers from GM and Tesla are no longer eligible to receive) and Tesla Model 3, which starts at around $ 37,000.

The Bolt EV has a range of 259 miles at full load, while the Bolt EUV reaches 250 miles. This compares to GM vehicles with Ultium technology, which are expected to reach up to 450 miles per load.

GM has also added additional technology to the Bolt models to make them more competitive. Most notably, the Bolt EUV will be Chevrolet’s first equipped with GM’s Super Cruise semi-autonomous steering system, which uses facial recognition to identify whether the driver is paying attention, so there’s no need to touch the steering wheel while the system is operating.

Offering vehicles with lower prices is part of the company’s new “for all” marketing campaign, with a focus on growing EV adoption. With this, the company hopes to attract new buyers to the segment and keep them for many years. This potentially includes getting them to trade a low-cost vehicle for a next-generation EV as the cost decreases.

“Our vision is that we want customers for the rest of our lives,” said Ortega. “As their needs increase and their lifestyle changes, we want to offer them an EV for that.”

The focus of this cost reduction is expected to be GM, which makes its own battery cells through a joint venture with LG Chem in Ohio. The $ 2.3 billion facility is currently under construction. It is expected to be completed in 2022.