NAIAS 2015| Chevy Bolt Is The New Rock Star Of America

on January 15, 2015 at 12:51 pm

“I’m as American as Chevrolet.” — Whoopi Goldberg

And now American goes for electric cars. We do not just have Tesla, but now we have Chevy Bolt, a young new rock star from Detroit. When Detroit meets Silicon Valley, nothing is impossible!

As Elon Musk said in an interview, his dream is that every car on the road be electric. “I really do encourage other manufacturers to bring electric cars to market. It’s a good thing, and they need to bring it to market and keep iterating and improving and make better and better electric cars, and that’s what going to result in humanity achieving a sustainable transport future. I wish it were growing faster than it is,” said Elon.

And God, look at this new Chevy Bolt! It’s amazing!

This conceptual car is a techy orange symbol. It’s very compact yet screaming a futuristic design. Inside the car, Chevy’s Engineers gave it a two-screen dash: one for the instrument cluster, the other in the center stack. There is remote start, heated seats, Bluetooth connectivity, and integrated LTE to round out Chevy’s usual list of tech and comfort features. “I think the Bolt’s interior is more intuitively designed and aesthetically pleasing than the BMW i3,” said a visitor.

At the range of 200 miles, this Chevy Bolt electric car has the 3rd longest range after Tesla Model S (275 miles) and Tesla Roadster (400 miles). General Motors said that it will have a price tag of $30,000 – $35,000. A very competitive price compared to Nissan Leaf, BMW i3, and even Tesla Model E. “A 200-mile EV range at about $30,000 in a crossover body shape is a killer combination,” said John Krafcik, President of auto shopping TrueCar Inc. And Former Chief Executive of Hyundai Motor America commented: “You are looking at annual sales of 100,000 vehicles.”

This past year, Tesla announced its Model E, which is coming 2017, at the price of $35,000 before incentives. And while the plan is still a mystery, Tesla also gave a comment about the new Chevy Bolt: “Tesla is always supportive of other manufactures who bring compelling electric vehicles to market. We applaud Chevrolet for introducing the Bolt and are excited to learn more about the product.”

General Motors said the spacious hatchback will go on sale in 2017. However, there is no plan for the charging stations yet. Currently, only Tesla has its own charging stations which have been offering free-charge for all Tesla cars. It might be a big gap to attract customers buying an electric car since you have to charge your car whether at work or at home.

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