The Chevrolet Bolt Is Back From the Dead

Car model names come and go, but the Chevrolet Bolt’s return to the market after a long hiatus is something different.Chevrolet announced in April 2023 that it would discontinue the subcompact Bolt EV and Bolt EUV (Electric Utility Vehicle) by the end of that year, as it began rolling out larger new electric models.The Bolts weren’t huge sellers, but they had an ardent fanbase that spent the next few months letting Chevrolet know it wasn’t happy about the decision. While the company couldn’t reverse course, by July it said it would do the next best thing.Chevrolet was still ending production at the Michigan factory that built them, but promised to revive the Bolt in a few years at a General Motors factory in Kansas. So it shut out the lights, packed things up and got ready for the cross-country move.Chevrolet retired the smaller Bolt EV, but the Bolt EUV has now returned as the 2027 Bolt without a surname. It wears the same body as the old one, but looks can be deceiving.The 2027 Bolt uses a mildly restyled version of the 2023 Bolt EUV’s body. ChevroletChevrolet fully revamped what’s under the skin. It now has a new, more efficient electric motor and an entirely different kind of battery pack. It switched from the NCM (Nickel, Cobalt, Manganese) battery that many electric vehicles use to an LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) chemistry, which is heavier but cheaper and more durable.It also increased the maximum charging rate from 55 kilowatts to 150 kilowatts, reducing the time required to charge the pack at a public station from about an hour to less than 30 minutes. That’s to 80% full, which is the level typically recommended to preserve battery life, as with phones and other battery-powered devices. However, LFP batteries can be charged to 100% all the time without worry. Considering the Bolt’s range is 262 miles, that’s roughly 50 miles and nearly an extra hour of driving.Chevrolet updated the Bolt for 2027 with a new drivetrain and infotainment system technology. ChevroletThe interior has also been updated with fresh styling, a new touchscreen, and Chevrolet’s latest infotainment system, which requires you to load apps into it, rather than mirroring your Apple or Android phone. It’s a minor inconvenience in a shared car, but it integrates the navigation system with the powertrain to help predict when it needs a charge and suggest charging stations within range. The Bolt comes from the factory with a Tesla-style NACS charging port and is compatible with the newest Tesla Supercharger stations, but can be used at others with a CCS port adapter.The Bolt is the smallest car Chevrolet sells in the U.S., but it is roomier than it appears. Six-foot-tall passengers can fit in both rows with room to spare, and the cargo area can swallow two large suitcases when the floor is in its lowest position.The base price is $28,995, which makes the Bolt the lowest-priced electric vehicle available right now and also the lowest-priced vehicle still assembled in America by an American brand. (For those keeping score at home, the Alabama-built Toyota Corolla is the cheapest at $23,920.)The Bolt lives up to its name with quick acceleration, hitting 60 mph in a sporty seven seconds. It’s quiet on the way there and while cruising at highway speeds it doesn’t handle like a sports car, and can be a bit bouncy on undulating roads, but rides as well as most subcompact SUVs. Chevrolet’s hands-free Super Cruise lane-centering adaptive cruise control is optional, if you’d prefer the car do most of the driving on the highway.Crucially, I found its range rating to be accurate, if not conservative, during a test drive, at least on a warm summer day. Having the confidence that an electric car will go as far as advertised helps reduce range anxiety, even if the range isn’t all that long.Unfortunately for those Bolt fans, its return engagement isn’t very long, either. The elimination of the federal tax credit for electric vehicles and imposition of new import tariffs while it was away has changed the automobile market dramatically, and General Motors plans to start onshoring more SUVs with internal combustion engines at the Kansas plant in late 2027.General Motors has said it is working on a family of next-generation Bolts, but their arrival date this time around is unknown.

The Chevrolet Bolt Is Back From the Dead

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