The Chevrolet Bolt EV

GM’s new 2022 Chevy Bolt EV and BoltEUV have received their official EPA ranges, and it’s pretty much on the mark except for the electric crossover coming in a bit short.

The recent Chevy Bolt fire on May 1, 2021 occurred just days after the “final fix” for the fire issue was announced. We sat down with the owner to discuss what happened, tell the inside story, and try to find some answers…

There were 6 Chevy Bolt fires last year that led to a recall, and the ink is still wet on the “final fix” announcement. Today news comes of another Chevy Bolt fire that occurred in Ashburn, Virginia on May 1st. We always note that electric vehicle fires are many times rarer than internal combustion engine fires per car even if there is an issue like this.

As was expected by the end of this month, GM has finally announced its Chevy Bolt battery fix.

The fix is in response to the battery fire recall announced 167 days ago. This is almost two months since any other update. The NHTSA recall notification did mention April 20 as the date for the fix. However, Chevy maintained that it was always aiming for the end of April. Today’s the day.

EV startup Ample today announced the rollout of its new modular battery swapping technology. A fully autonomous station deploys robots to remove and replace modules from an electric vehicle containing Ample’s modular battery architecture. These swapping stations are currently operational in California’s Bay Area.

It’s been more than three months since Chevrolet announced that more than 68,000 Chevy Bolt EV were recalled due to fire risk in the battery. The temporary fix has been to apply a software update that limits the charge to “90%” (actually 95%). They did provide a brief update via Facebook last week. It appears that a more definitive Bolt recall update is finally here. Read down for the update.

After four long years, the Chevrolet Bolt EV has its mid-cycle refresh with lots of asked for features and gains a new, bigger sibling with Super Cruise – the Chevrolet Bolt EUV.

A South Korean news agency is citing anonymous industry sources in the the cause of the atypical battery fires in the Bolt and Kona LG EV batteries.

Update: An official from LG Energy Solution told us…

“The exact cause of the Kona fire has not determined yet. The investigation is still underway with related authorities. However, we can say for sure that the cause of the fire is not a separator problem.”

Chevy broke their nearly 3-month silence since the Bolt recall to provide a small update via a Facebook group comment.

Ever since the November 13 Bolt EV Battery Recall announcement, eager Chevrolet Bolt owners have been waiting to hear about the progress of the recall. The temporary fix, which owners have been urged to go to the dealership to have applied for free, reduces the charge limit to 90%. (Well, 95% actually, more on that later.) GM and LG Engineers are diligently working to resolve the issue.

Happy New Year! Now that 2021 has arrived, dealers are even more motivated than last month to move old inventory off their lots. Remaining stock of 2020 models is already thin in some locales, so act soon if you find any of these offers on 200-mile EVs enticing.  

As always, check our Electric Vehicle Best Price Guide and Electric Vehicle Best Lease Guide for the best deals on EVs in the US.

During our monthly search for the best EV discounts, we found four models – two BEVs and two PHEVs – that can cost less than $20,000 before tax and license. Considering the average used vehicle price as reported by USA Today was trending upward at $21,558 in July, and that the average new vehicle transaction price is just shy of $40,000 ($39,259 to be exact, per Kelly Blue Book), $20K for a brand-new electric vehicle looks like a relative bargain.

Note this is the last week we’ll include PHEVs in our roundups. Our resolution for 2021 is BEVs only!

Black Friday deals are here! Our Electric Vehicle Price Guide and Electric Vehicle Lease Guide have been updated with the latest EV offers, many of which are set to expire on November 30. Below are some of the best lease deals and discounts we’ve found…

Today GM had a lot of new EVs on display at a Barclays investor event but far away, a realtor doing YouTube videos happened to catch the first public glimpse of the 2022 Bolt EV out in the wild. This is the same pre-COVID 2021 Bolt EV that we saw at GM’s EV Day in Detroit in February.

GM is announcing today that it is initiating a voluntary recall of 68,667 Chevy Bolt EV electric cars model year 2017 to 2019 over a potential fire risk. There have been 5 reported fires in close to 70,000 vehicles produced.

What you need to know if you are a 2017-2019 Bolt Owner:

• There have only been 5 fires out of almost 70,000 cars on the road over 3.5 years
• GM recommends that you don’t park your car in a garage at full state of charge
• GM recommends that 2017-2018 Bolt owners set “Hilltop” state of charge or 2019 owners manually set to 90% when charging. Instructions are below. Some 2019 Bolts were made from LG Cells manufactured in Holland MI and those aren’t affected by this recall.
• Chevy Dealerships will put a 90% top limit on the amount of charge (There is no OTA) until there is a long term solution found. You can enter your Bolt VIN here to start the process.

NHTSA announced that it is looking into Chevy Bolt EV over a potential issue that could lead to a battery fire.

Tesla isn’t the only company that makes an end of the quarter sales push. There are still a couple of days left to score a great end-of-quarter deal on several popular EVs all over the US. Even better, often you can get a local dealer to match or at least come down close to these best-in-nation deals. Here are some of the best offers currently on our Electric Vehicle Price Guide and Electric Vehicle Lease Guide…

Chevy has released the first teaser pictures of the upcoming refreshed Bolt EV and new Bolt EUV electric cars.

General Motors confirmed that it plans to end production of its Chevrolet Sonic small gas car in October. With the Sonic’s demise, gas cars will no longer be produced at GM’s Orion Township Assembly Plant near Detroit. Orion will become an all-EV plant, where the Bolt compact and Bolt EUV will be manufactured.

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With inventory backed up as a result of the pandemic, traditional July 4 deals are on steroids this year. Combine that with a need to find new EV buyers and move remaining 2019 models off the lot. The result: Those so-called premiums on electric cars are being replaced with discounts of up to $15,000 on popular, affordable models like the Chevrolet Bolt and Nissan Leaf, according to Electrek’s Best EV deals price survey. Remember, even if you don’t live near a dealer listed, you can often use these prices to negotiate down prices at local dealers.

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Like a lot (2) of early Chevy Bolt owners, I gave up my three-year lease recently and surrendered the 238-mile compact EV to my local Chevy dealer. It is the first time I’ve been back to the dealer since I picked up the car and nothing had changed. Mine was, again, the only EV on the lot.

I got an extra month because NY car dealers were closed for the pandemic, but I didn’t do much extra driving, and GM Financial has been wishy-washy on whether they are going to bill me extra for not being able to turn it in. I asked both GM Financial and the dealer if I could buy the car out at a reasonable price months ago. Both only offered me the sticker price, which was a non-starter at more than a new 2020 Bolt.

And that’s a theme I encountered with GM and the Bolt. I really loved the car, but the company behind it was a whole lot harder to love.

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