After asserting a reversal of its cancellation this summer time and letting some further particulars out in October, Common Motors has lastly confirmed that the next-generation Chevrolet Bolt EV will debut in 2025.
GM CEO Mary Barra made this announcement yesterday at the Automotive Press Affiliation in Detroit, the place she additionally spoke to the present Bolt’s avid fanbase and powerful gross sales regardless of its advancing age. “That is been one thing that has been actually nice this yr, and that knowledgeable the choice that we’ll have that again once more in ’25,” Barra mentioned, in line with Automotive Information. She didn’t present any further particulars concerning the future EV, although.
This tracks with a Reuters report from final month based mostly on the automaker’s tentative settlement with the United Auto Employees union. A doc from these negotiations indicated the UAW had secured a $391 million funding for a “future electrical car” at Fairfax Meeting in Kansas, which at present makes the Cadillac XT4 and Chevrolet Malibu. Sources instructed Reuters that the longer term EV that will likely be made in Kansas from 2025 is the following Chevy Bolt.
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The launch timeline can be in line with Mary Barra’s remarks on GM’s third-quarter earnings name in October. She mentioned that giving the longer term Bolt a lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery pack, and the very fact it will not be a clean-sheet redesign, will contribute to “attending to market not less than two years sooner.” LFP batteries are cheaper to construct than their cobalt- and nickel-based variants, so whereas they retailer much less vitality, they’re seen as a key know-how for wider EV adoption; Tesla, Ford and different automakers are investing closely into such batteries.
As a reminder, Barra mentioned in October that the next-gen Chevy Bolt will leverage “the very best attributes of at the moment’s Bolt EUV, in addition to Ultium, our newest software program, and NACS.” This may also make the longer term Bolt GM’s first deployment of LFP know-how within the Ultium platform in North America. In doing so, GM will likely be saving “billions in capital and engineering expense, delivering a considerably cost-improved battery pack utilizing bought LFP cells.” As well as, shifting to LFP will enable GM to have a “considerably decrease” unit price, Barra mentioned.
Whereas GM’s CEO didn’t present vary or value estimates for the LFP battery-powered Bolt, she mentioned the car “will ship an excellent higher driving, charging, and possession expertise with a car we all know prospects love.”
GM has had an extremely rocky path for its EV technique this yr. It has introduced delays for a number of EV fashions—together with the Chevrolet Equinox EV, Chevrolet Silverado EV RST, and GMC Sierra EV—in addition to slower EV manufacturing and EV product spending cuts on its Q3 2023 earnings name.
The corporate additionally deserted a purpose to construct 400,000 electrical automobiles from 2022 by means of mid-2024, though it reiterated its goal to get to 1 million EVs of manufacturing by the top of 2025.
Final week, Barra admitted that GM has not executed properly on its Ultium-based EV technique this yr as a producing constraint has hampered battery module meeting, resulting in a delayed begin of electrical pickup truck manufacturing on the Orion plant and the idling of the CAMI Meeting plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, till spring 2024.
Relaunching the Bolt might go a protracted technique to fixing a few of these issues. First launched in late 2016 and adopted by the bigger EUV variant in 2022, the Bolt has been a constantly in style vendor within the U.S. regardless of not having the identical fast-charging speeds as extra fashionable EVs. However scores of patrons have been drawn to its low price ticket, nice vary and compact utility. With any fortunate, GM can pull a repeat with the following Bolt.