Chevrolet to Boost Bolt EV Production by 20% to Meet Demand

DooKey

DooKey

[H]F Junkie
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Ok, wake me up. People are actually wanting more Bolts than Chevrolet can build? I think I fell through a wormhole into an alternate universe. Believe it or not Chevrolet is increasing Bolt production by 20% due to increased demand. Yes, you read that correctly. Considering how butt fugly that vehicle is I'm truly shocked. I'm going to blame this on Tesla because it took them too long to get Model 3 production up to par. Regardless, good for you Chevy......I think.

"The extra production coming on line should be enough to help us keep growing global Bolt EV sales, rebuild our US dealer inventory and bring us another step closer to our vision of a world with zero emissions," Kurt McNeil, GM's US vice president of sales operations, said in a statement.
 
Doesn't seem too surprising to me. One of the few electric cars that gets over 200 miles on a budget. It's a relatively simple design, I like it.

edit: nissan leaf looks uglier to me for example
edit edit: BMW i3 looks kind of dumb to me as well.
 
Feh. I'm sticking to my Priuses (or is the plural Prii? Sounds phallic) for the foreseeable future.
450+ miles range, 43+ as-driven MPG, and no worries about finding a "recharging station."
 
Good, maybe they(as in everyone but tesla) will start selling outside of the states that have forced EV sales. Good luck getting a EV in the rust belt, at best you might be able to special order one and buy it site unseen and un test drove.

I still find it very odd that plugin hybrids are not selling very well compaired to the pure EV version. In what bazaro land does the bolt outsell the volt to the point of plans of discontinuing the volt?
 
pcgeekesq said:
Feh. I'm sticking to my Priuses (or is the plural Prii? Sounds phallic) for the foreseeable future.
450+ miles range, 43+ as-driven MPG, and no worries about finding a "recharging station."
Click to expand...
What gen? How long have you had them and have you had to change any of the battery sub-cells or do maintenance on them whole battery unit?
 
Curious how the sales demand is by state. With California gas prices at $3.70 vs the $2.86 national average you get over qualms on car looks pretty quick.
 
N4CR said:
What gen? How long have you had them and have you had to change any of the battery sub-cells or do maintenance on them whole battery unit?
Click to expand...

Answering for someone else, gotta love it.

On average, there is about a 2-2.5% battery pack replacement rate after 10 years.
This is about the same as people with automatic transmissions needing a new transmission in 10 years, and a good deal less than clutches for those of us that prefer having three pedals.
And the price is in the for a battery pack replacement and an automatic transmission is in same ballpark as well. (Clutch is obv cheaper)

This is with Gen1 Prius, which is now over 10 years old. Using old battery tech.
On average they have 80% of battery life after 10 years, which considering how the Hybrid Synergy drive works, means more-or-less nothing, since the battery is used as a "buffer" in the Synergy Drive setup.

And while almost all electrics are still using "fossil fuels" as an energy source, it is SIGNIFICANTLY easier to clean up emissions at point sources (i.e. power plants) that in non-point sources (i.e. 300 million automobiles in the US)
 
nightanole said:
Good, maybe they(as in everyone but tesla) will start selling outside of the states that have forced EV sales. Good luck getting a EV in the rust belt, at best you might be able to special order one and buy it site unseen and un test drove.

I still find it very odd that plugin hybrids are not selling very well compaired to the pure EV version. In what bazaro land does the bolt outsell the volt to the point of plans of discontinuing the volt?
Click to expand...

The volt overall has a lower eMPG rating. Once you run the battery out it sucks mpg wise. It does worse than a cruz and it's the exact same body frame.

If you only drive it to work (a whopping total of under 100 miles a week for me) it makes perfect sense to have it and keep a trafitional ice on standby.

Btw: the rags have given the bolt very good ratings two years in a row.
 
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Zumino Zufeilon said:
And while almost all electrics are still using "fossil fuels" as an energy source, it is SIGNIFICANTLY easier to clean up emissions at point sources (i.e. power plants) that in non-point sources (i.e. 300 million automobiles in the US)
Click to expand...

While I believe the inevitable future leans toward electric cars, don't delude yourself on how easy it is to clean up power plant output. It is not cost effective to make power cleaner for fossil fuel plants. Hence why soamy are closing.

Also we have a problem with the power grid unable to handle the load.
 
PaulP said:
Zero emissions my ass. Most of the electricity generated in the world is from fossil fuel, not "renewables". So all you are doing with an EV is shifting the emissions from your vehicle to the power plant.
Click to expand...

By that logic, we shouldn't have public bathrooms either. All they are doing is shifting all the piss and shit people produce into a single easily managed point, terrible huh? We should probably shut them down, and just let everyone crap anywhere any time.

*eyeroll*

Gen2 Volt owner here in TX... I pay 7 cents per kwh delivered, and it's all sourced from 100% renewable. my 75 mile commute is 70% covered by the electric aspect of my car, can't wait to go fully electric with a Model 3.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
While I believe the inevitable future leans toward electric cars, don't delude yourself on how easy it is to clean up power plant output. It is not cost effective to make power cleaner for fossil fuel plants. Hence why soamy are closing.

Also we have a problem with the power grid unable to handle the load.
Click to expand...


Hah, I don't delude my self that it is "easy"
Rather, that it is significantly easier than cleaning up a non-point source like 300 million individual cars+
 
DigitalGriffin said:
The volt overall has a lower eMPG rating. Once you run the battery out it sucks mpg wise. It does worse than a cruz and it's the exact same body frame.

If you only drive it to work (a whopping total of under 100 miles a week for me) it makes perfect sense to have it and keep a trafitional ice on standby.

Btw: the rags have given the bolt very good ratings two years in a row.
Click to expand...

2017 Volt owner here -- and I drive 75 miles *a day* for work. Almost all Texas highway, and I'm still able to do 70% of my round trip on electric power. When I am in gas mode, I'm getting an avg of around 40-42mpg on the highway vs the Cruz's stated 47. The Volt is hauling around 500lbs more worth of weight at all times vs the Cruz that's part of the discrepancy.

I've had a (new) Cruz as a loaner while the Volt was getting worked on... and even as an efficiency nut: I'd gladly give up those 7mpg and take the smooth electric powered Volt. The optioned up brand new Cruz they gave me was an absolute piece of crap quality/smoothness wise. It's start/stop system made me want to punch a baby in the face, that's how bad it was.
 
collegeboy69us said:
By that logic, we shouldn't have public bathrooms either. All they are doing is shifting all the piss and shit people produce into a single easily managed point, terrible huh? We should probably shut them down, and just let everyone crap anywhere any time.

*eyeroll*

Gen2 Volt owner here in TX... I pay 7 cents per kwh delivered, and it's all sourced from 100% renewable. my 75 mile commute is 70% covered by the electric aspect of my car, can't wait to go fully electric with a Model 3.
Click to expand...
Like strawmen much? Sheesh, reread what I wrote. I didn't say that shifting emissions is bad, or that EVs don't generate net less emissions. What I said what was that they aren't ZERO emission vehicles. Care to argue that simple point?
 
Why is it that any cars manufactured in the US that are EVs (that aren't named Telsa) pretty much compact cars? The Volt is technically not a EV because it still relies on gas to generate power once the battery drains. Not that I even like the way either car looked.
 
PaulP said:
Like strawmen much? Sheesh, reread what I wrote. I didn't say that shifting emissions is bad, or that EVs don't generate net less emissions. What I said what was that they aren't ZERO emission vehicles. Care to argue that simple point?
Click to expand...

Alright let's argue a simple point: A Bolt/Tesla being a zero emissions vehicle from the simple fact that the product itself produces no pollution. I can sit in the garage for hours with it running and not die of CO poisoning. If such cars were truly embraced in densely populated areas we would quickly see marked improvements in local air quality alongside the highway and in city areas. Is that a bad thing? Or thinking to the future, of a better designed electrical grid with most everyone charging at night, with the option and bonus of having the grid backed by a distributed system of batteries from everyone's cars. You said you wanted to keep the argument simple: an EV itself produces zero emissions getting you from A to B.

Until the US gets it's shit together and upgrades his aging electrical network and (fully) embraces solar/wind/battery tech, anything that uses electricity falls under your rant category of not being "zero emissions". Your fridge, your computer, the high powered vibrator your significant other might use that plugs into the wall? Would have an "emissions" cost associated with it, I get it. Hell, I could hook up a pedal powered generator and work up a sweat to store some juice to run a laptop/vibrator/whatever, and it would still have "emissions" from the CO2 I exhaled. That doesn't mean I should say "screw it" and just unpack a diesel generator to do the work for me locally.

You are assigning the global variable of "emissions" to a local variable of "zero emission". Nobody is fooled or tricked into thinking these cars run on happy thoughts and fluffy clouds, they run on electricity pure and simple. Economies of scale still mean it's cheaper/cleaner/easier in the long run to run EVs
 
SomeoneElse said:
Why is it that any cars manufactured in the US that are EVs (that aren't named Telsa) pretty much compact cars? The Volt is technically not a EV because it still relies on gas to generate power once the battery drains. Not that I even like the way either car looked.
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/comic book guy/
ACTUALLY
the Volt is considered a "REEV, or Range Extended Electric Vehicle".
/comic book guy/

It's picking at nits though. It really does depend on your use. if your daily commute is sub-40 miles, it is entirely an electric car (and most peoples in the US is sub-40 miles).
 
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Zumino Zufeilon said:
Hah, I don't delude my self that it is "easy"
Rather, that it is significantly easier than cleaning up a non-point source like 300 million individual cars+
Click to expand...
The air leaving the exhaust pipe of modern gas engines is cleaner than when it went in. It just releases CO2 which less informed people have an annurism over. Coal and oil plants are much worse. Much much worse in fact.

In fact using your lawn mower on a 1/4 acre piece of land teleases more NOx emmisions and sulfur than driving up the east coast in an average car

But facts elude progressives.
 
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N4CR said:
What gen? How long have you had them and have you had to change any of the battery sub-cells or do maintenance on them whole battery unit?
Click to expand...
2007 Prius and 2016 Prius V. The only battery maintenance has been replacing the 12V car battery in the back.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
The air leaving the exhaust pipe of modern gas engines is cleaner than when it went in. It just releases CO2 which less informed people have an annurism over. Coal and oil plants are much worse. Much much worse in fact.

In fact using your lawn mower on a 1/4 acre piece of land teleases more NOx emmisions and sulfur than driving up the east coast in an average car

But facts elude progressives.
Click to expand...


Ok sparky, your right, experts the world over are less informed than you.

This might apply here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect
 
PaulP said:
Zero emissions my ass. Most of the electricity generated in the world is from fossil fuel, not "renewables". So all you are doing with an EV is shifting the emissions from your vehicle to the power plant.
Click to expand...

This is a stupid argument because the amount or pollution generated to top off the battery is orders of magnitude less than an ICE, even factoring in the fabrication of said batteries. Electric motors are remarkably efficient. You use more electricity running a space heater in the winter than the average person does charging their car all year.
 
I don't really get the Bolt. It's an econobox that you pay a ~$15k premium for the electric drivetrain. Even with the tax credit, it would take over 100k miles to recoup that initial difference.

DigitalGriffin said:
The air leaving the exhaust pipe of modern gas engines is cleaner than when it went in. It just releases CO2 which less informed people have an annurism over. Coal and oil plants are much worse. Much much worse in fact.
Click to expand...

None of that is even remotely true.
 
PaulP said:
Zero emissions my ass. Most of the electricity generated in the world is from fossil fuel, not "renewables". So all you are doing with an EV is shifting the emissions from your vehicle to the power plant.
Click to expand...

Its still a net positive.

Just like parking your car and taking a diesel powered bus is a net positive.

Also many of us live in places where the electricity we are using does not in anyway come from fossil fuels. The Canadian province I live in produces far more hyro-electricity then we need... we sell the excess to our friends to the south.
 
Parja said:
I don't really get the Bolt. It's an econobox that you pay a ~$15k premium for the electric drivetrain. Even with the tax credit, it would take over 100k miles to recoup that initial difference.



None of that is even remotely true.
Click to expand...

Actually it is on average very true. There are ZERO emission controls on lawn mowers. Catalytic converters in modern cars find NOx compounds and turn them back into harmless Nitrogen. Sulfur compounds are transformed into less harmful compounds that don't produce acid rain. Carbon monoxide compounds are transformed to CO2 which leads to less carbonic acid.

Power plant "scrubbers" aren't even close to 100% effective. You don't want to know how much mercury gets dumped into the environment. Nor does it change the amount of damage coal strip mining does. Even regular mining damages the environment. If you don't believe me, I'll take you to a few in PA and WV and show them do you and the surrounding trees. Chum is ugly stuff on the environment. So is left over coal ash.

You know how they filter Coal plants?
The first thing they do is crush the coal which increases surface area which increases burn area. Unfortunately this produces particulate dust of coal
Next after the coal is burned (and air pumped in a regulated and controlled way to control the burn) it gets vented and water jets shoot into the exhaust stack which captures the particulates and makes them drop into a NOMEX bag.

Uninformed my ass. I read more papers and studied more than you realize sparky.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
The air leaving the exhaust pipe of modern gas engines is cleaner than when it went in. It just releases CO2 which less informed people have an annurism over. Coal and oil plants are much worse. Much much worse in fact.

In fact using your lawn mower on a 1/4 acre piece of land teleases more NOx emmisions and sulfur than driving up the east coast in an average car

But facts elude progressives.
Click to expand...

But the feelz, man, the feelz!
 
PaulP said:
So all you are doing with an EV is shifting the emissions from your vehicle to the power plant.
Click to expand...

What's easier to control emissions and overall efficiency on - one power plant or hundreds of thousands of individual cars? Especially when you have things like the European diesel ECU lying under test condition scandals that are already underway?

Look at all the variables, not just the politically popular/expedient ones :wacky:
 
DigitalGriffin said:
Actually it is on average very true.

Uninformed my ass. I read more papers and studied more than you realize sparky.
Click to expand...

Can you point me to a source where this claim is supported? I'm genuinely interested as it seems counter intuitive....especially since my Aunt committed suicide by breathing her car exhaust in an enclosed garage.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
The air leaving the exhaust pipe of modern gas engines is cleaner than when it went in. It just releases CO2 which less informed people have an annurism over. Coal and oil plants are much worse. Much much worse in fact.

In fact using your lawn mower on a 1/4 acre piece of land teleases more NOx emmisions and sulfur than driving up the east coast in an average car

But facts elude progressives.
Click to expand...
Um, doesn't exhaust also contain CO (Carbon Monoxide) which will kill you?
 
Parja said:
I don't really get the Bolt. It's an econobox that you pay a ~$15k premium for the electric drivetrain. Even with the tax credit, it would take over 100k miles to recoup that initial difference.



None of that is even remotely true.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. When these things are $15k & fun, I'm all in. Until then, Ill buy stick econo-boxes & motorcycles.
 
/dev/null said:
Exactly this. When these things are $15k & fun, I'm all in. Until then, Ill buy stick econo-boxes & motorcycles.
Click to expand...

Well, they're never gonna be $15k.

Twice that for a decently optioned one would be fine. But you add a few options to a Bolt and all of a sudden you're at $40k.
 
sadsteve said:
Yeah, I think it's ugly too but then so are the Fiat's I've been seeing around. My ugly is not necessarily someone else's ugly.
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We just got a Fiat 500L, which essentially looks like a blown up 500. It's not the sexiest, best handling or fastest crossover out there... but it gets the job done, reasonably price and is practical as hell. I honest dont give a crap what it looks like as long as it keeps running and gets me cheap running costs.
 
/dev/null said:
Exactly this. When these things are $15k & fun, I'm all in. Until then, Ill buy stick econo-boxes & motorcycles.
Click to expand...

That is incorrect, they are loaded with technology and features beyond the electric drive train many of them included with the base model. The driving experience is not comparable to an econobox. Does that mean you aren't paying a premium for the drive train? No, but that doesn't mean they are the piece of shit with an electric motor you are making them out to be. Just saving money on gas can be a losing proposition depending on your mileage and where you live. Maintenance however is a tangible benefit that piles on top of the gas savings. I have driven my volt 39k miles and had to change the oil on the generator once and rotated the tires that's it. There's not much that can go wrong with an electric motor as it doesn't have the kinda wear an ICE does. The transmission is literally 1 gear.
 
Chaos Machine said:
That is incorrect, they are loaded with technology and features beyond the electric drive train many of them included with the base model. The driving experience is not comparable to an econobox. Does that mean you aren't paying a premium for the drive train? No, but that doesn't mean they are the piece of shit with an electric motor you are making them out to be. Just saving money on gas can be a losing proposition depending on your mileage and where you live. Maintenance however is a tangible benefit that piles on top of the gas savings. I have driven my volt 39k miles and had to change the oil on the generator once and rotated the tires that's it. There's not much that can go wrong with an electric motor as it doesn't have the kinda wear an ICE does. The transmission is literally 1 gear.
Click to expand...

I'm not making them out as that at all. I don't want a premium $30k+ electric car. I want a basic, new $15k electric car.

What I'm saying is what I want to drive a basic, $15k car. If they can offer that in electric for the same price & same range (I get ~ 400 miles on a 12gal tank or so on my 5 speed) then I'd consider it. Until then I"ll stick with a basic conventional car.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
In fact using your lawn mower on a 1/4 acre piece of land teleases more NOx emmisions and sulfur ...
Click to expand...
Who uses a gas lawnmower for such a small lawn? You spend more time starting and maintaining the damn thing than mowing with it.
I've been using corded electric mowers for years: light, quiet, convenient, and very little maintenance.
 
Looks like crap and has a stupid name (considering Volt) but it's a pretty good EV.
 
pcgeekesq said:
Who uses a gas lawnmower for such a small lawn? You spend more time starting and maintaining the damn thing than mowing with it.
I've been using corded electric mowers for years: light, quiet, convenient, and very little maintenance.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, most people.

They have new options for battery powered ones now though. EGO makes a 56v one that I personally have seen chew through foot tall grass for around $500, lasts an hour and takes an hour to charge.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
The air leaving the exhaust pipe of modern gas engines is cleaner than when it went in. It just releases CO2 which less informed people have an annurism over. Coal and oil plants are much worse. Much much worse in fact.

In fact using your lawn mower on a 1/4 acre piece of land teleases more NOx emmisions and sulfur than driving up the east coast in an average car

But facts elude progressives.
Click to expand...

Was it merc that had their modern v8 running of the exhaust of their 1970's v8 at some of the auto shows?
 
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