GM Will End Production Of Electric Chevy Bolt Later This Year

Anis

26 April 2023 at 02:45 PM

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Chevrolet Bolt EV.

General Motors Co announced that production of its Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle will end later this year as the company shifts zero-emission production to trucks and SUVs built on a new battery platform. "We've come so far that it's now time to plan for the end of Chevrolet Bolt EV and EU production at the end of the year," GM CEO Mary Barra told investors on recently. In 2022, the world's largest automaker sold 38,120 Bolt EVs, up from 24,828 in 2011 - and 19,700 in the first three months of the year. The Bolt, GM's first mass-market EV, continues to account for more than 90% of all GM EV sales in the United States. The Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid that GM discontinued production of in 2019, came before the Bolt. GM produced and leased approximately 1,100 EV1 vehicles in the late 1990s.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra unveiled the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle during the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Bolt, which starts at $26,500 and qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit, has been repeatedly cited as an example of an affordable EV by the Biden administration. In January 2022, GM announced a $4 billion investment in its Orion Township Assembly plant, which manufactures the Bolt, to produce the Chevrolet Silverado EV and electric GMC Sierra on its next-generation Ultium EV platform. GM claims that by late 2024, its Detroit-Hamtramck and Orion plants will be able to produce more than 600,000 electric trucks per year. When the Orion reopens in 2024 and reaches full production, employment will nearly triple, according to Barra.

GM expects to build 400,000 EVs in North America from 2022 to mid-2024, with a capacity increase to 1 million units per year in North America by 2025. Barra stated on Tuesday that the automaker expects its Warren, Ohio, battery plant to reach full capacity by the end of the year. In August 2021, GM announced a $2 billion recall campaign that was expanded to include all 140,000 Bolt vehicles it had produced due to battery fire risks. Due to the recall, GM halted Bolt production and sales for more than six months. LG Electronics Inc, GM's battery partner, agreed to reimburse the automaker for US$1.9 billion in Bolt recall costs, the Korean company said in 2021.

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