Chevrolet Bolt Review

Chevrolet Bolt Review

Chevrolet Bolt is an EV that offers 238 miles of range at a reasonable price

With the Bolt, General Motors introduced the industry's first affordable long-range electric car, rated to provide 238 miles on a single charge. It's a milestone for the EV market. The Bolt is currently available only in California and Oregon but will roll out nationwide throughout 2017.

Performance

The Bolt's 150-kW electric motor produces 200 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque to the front axle. That output is enough for the Bolt to go from zero to 60 mph in less than seven seconds.

Most reviewers give Chevy credit for the Bolt’s comfortable ride and compliant steering. As with most electric vehicles, the Bolt delivers quick acceleration from a standstill—even more than you will find in the Nissan LEAF, but perhaps not as much as the BMW i3. Like other EVs, the Bolt’s excellent torque at low speeds doesn’t translate to great passing power on the highway. While still perfectly adequate for highway driving, the Bolt’s performance is not that much different than what’s provided by other efficient front-wheel-drive cars, regardless of powertrain. The ride is very quiet in the city and on the highway.

The feel on the road depends on which driving mode is selected. Put the gear selector into Low to gain more grab from the brakes—what EV drivers call “one-pedal” driving. In other words, as opposed to quickly shifting your foot from the accelerator to the brake, the car will quickly come to a stop by merely lifting off the go-pedal—but not touching the brake pedal. This is a strategy to maximize the amount of braking energy that’s reclaimed for charging the battery. The same purpose can be achieved by using the small paddle behind the steering wheel to increase regenerative braking. The Bolt’s braking is smooth and consistent, a trait not shared by many hybrids and EVs that have uneven or tentative braking.

CHEVROLET BOLT SPECIFICATIONS

Availability:	Now
Base MSRP:	$37500
Est. tax credit:	$7500
Technology:	Electric Vehicle
Body type:	Sedan
Seats:	5
EPA Range:	238 miles pure electric
Battery size:	60 kWh
Charging rate:	7.2 kW

Passenger/Cargo Room

Besides praise for its long range, the compliment most often bestowed upon the Bolt is for its generous interior space. Nearly every reviewer confirms what GM promised: a compact car with the interior space of a mid-size vehicle. It’s considered one of the roomiest vehicles in its segment. Visibility is excellent. Four adult passengers will find plenty of space, an extra inch or two of legroom, and a high seating position. (Three grown-ups in the back are fine for relatively short trips.) In addition to a generous 94.4 cubic feet of passenger volume, the interior cargo space expands from 17 cubic feet to an ample 55 cubes when the seats are folded down.

Some of the extra room was managed via the use of thinner seats with less padding. That’s a great trick, although it could reduce comfort for longer trips.

The interior space is well organized with multiple useful storage compartments, even if the abundant use of hard plastics gives an economy feel. You can spruce up with the appointments with the Premiere trim, which replaces the cloth seats with leather, providing heat to both front and rear seats, and adding many other tech enhancements.

Regardless of trim, the dashboard provides a digital 8-inch instrument cluster and 10.2-inch color touchscreen for artfully display the cabin’s core functions. Those high-tech features are complimented by a digital rearview mirror, which uses a rear camera to provide an 80-degree view in back. (An optional surround-view camera is also available.) Other high-tech features include Wi-Fi connectivity for up to seven devices and EV-specific routing for the navigation.

Chevrolet calls the Bolt a crossover, a claim that we dismissed as marketing bluster at first. Clearly, the Bolt looks like any other shoebox compact. But there’s actually some credence to Chevy’s claim. From a functional perspective, a crossover is defined in part by a tall seating position, which is quantified by the distance from the ground to the driver’s hip, a measure known as the H-point. While the Bolt doesn’t appear to have the ground clearance of most crossovers, the underfloor battery pack elevates the seating position. At 25.5 inches, the Bolt’s H-point is closer to a Toyota Highlander’s 28.6 inches than a Volkswagen Golf’s 20.8 inches.

From that perch, the Bolt feels much narrower than its 69.5-inch width suggests. You’re always aware that you’re sitting close to the person in the passenger seat, even if the cabin never feels cramped or claustrophobic. Chevy did a nice job organizing the interior with a center console that accommodates drinks and phones and still leaves room for elbows on the armrest. There’s also a large bin on the floor between the driver and front passenger for a purse or other large items. Exceptionally slender front seats—made by suspending plastic sheets from metal frames and covering them with a fraction of the usual padding—leave ample room in the rear seats for adults. Although not at a compact-crossover level of spaciousness, that back seat is more generous than those of compact hatchbacks. However, the cargo area, at 17 cubic feet, would be on the small side for a hatchback and is less than half that of the typical crossover.

Our test car was a Bolt Premier, the only step up from the base trim with a starting price of $41,780. It adds leather, heated front and rear seats, roof rails, a 360-degree-view camera system, a rearview camera mirror, rear parking sensors, and blind-spot monitoring. Options included an upgraded Bose stereo, wireless phone charging, and two USB ports in the rear for $485, plus a Driver Assistance package with forward-collision alert with pedestrian detection, lane-keeping assist, and automatic high-beams for $495. Along with the aforementioned quick-charging connector and $395 for the Orange Burst Metallic paint, the final price reached $43,905.