Time magazine anointed it one of the Best 25 Inventions of 2016, and it was named 2017 North American Car of the Year, but like so many things that have gone awry over the past two years, the Chevrolet Bolt has veered into a ditch.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Having seen some success with its homegrown Volt gas-electric hybrid – the car General Motors executives brought to Washington D.C. to secure a government bailout in 2008 – the automaker set out to engineer an affordable electric vehicle (EV) to eclipse the Nissan Leaf and other rivals coming to market.
In reality, the Bolt is the product of close collaboration between GM Korea (formerly Daewoo) and South Korean electronics maker LG, which was responsible for the battery and drivetrain, and the cabin’s heating/air-conditioning and infotainment systems. Initial work began in 2012 and the completed Bolt – assembled in Michigan – rolled into dealerships in late 2016.
The Bolt’s big claim to fame is its liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery pack that stores 60 kilowatt-hours of energy, enough to travel 383 kilometres between charges. It’s double what a standard Leaf could do, and at considerably less cost than a Tesla Model 3.
So what could possibly go wrong? We’ll get to that. First, let’s go over what promised to be a pretty clever EV from an automaker whose intentions were noble.
The Bolt is a subcompact, but tall, five-door hatchback weighing 3,580 pounds (1625 kg), which is pretty light given that the battery weighs 440 kg on its own. The doors, tailgate and hood are aluminum to help trim some mass. The car’s centre of gravity is just 53 cm above the road (a Mazda Miata roadster’s is 47 cm) thanks to the battery array being under the floor, contributing to the Bolt’s surprisingly stable handling.
The functional cabin is much bigger than you’d expect given its curb presence. There’s plenty of head- and legroom, and that applies to the rear seating positions, too. The Bolt has a large greenhouse with lots of glass so that blind spots are minimized – a boon to drivers young and old.
Up front are easy-to-understand climate controls, a handy volume knob and tuning buttons arranged below the infotainment touchscreen, and the instrument panel can be configured to show helpful information such as range-coaching features critical in an EV. The main letdown is the quality of the materials used, which is most obvious when it comes to the carpet and the hard interior plastics. The front seats disappointed more than a few owners.
“The seat is too narrow so the side bolsters push in noticeably on your sides in not a good way,” one Bolt owner posted online. “The bottom of the seat cushion is so thin that I can just about feel the frame.”
2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV
The big battery powers a 200-hp electric motor that instantly churns out 266 lb-ft of torque. The motor is integrated with a single-speed transmission and differential to drive the front wheels. To help keep the battery juiced, electric cars utilize regenerative braking. In the Bolt, the driver can choose between normal braking in Drive mode and strong regenerative braking in Low.
Select Low and the Bolt decelerates when the pilot lifts off the accelerator as speed is retarded by the generator recharging the battery, rather than scrubbed off using the brakes. The setting allows the driver to practice one-pedal driving, since easing off the “gas” is so effective at slowing the car down (extra braking is available by squeezing the left-hand steering paddle). Those who want a wholly normal driving experience can simply flip the setting.
Instant torque is addictive: the Bolt merges onto highways with ease and there’s plenty of reserve power for passing on two-lane roads. Zero to 97 km/h comes up in 6.4 seconds – exceptional performance for any subcompact, gas or electric. The steering provides an optimal level of response that’s neither darty nor lifeless, and there’s good feedback at the wheel.
The Bolt is nimble and sure-footed when the road gets curvy – again, thanks to the “skateboard” platform that puts the weighty battery pack under the floor. However, the simple torsion-beam rear suspension doesn’t cope with rough road surfaces very well. Like every EV, the absence of a gasoline engine makes the Bolt eerily quiet, though there’s a little wind noise and some tire rumble to remind you that you’re travelling at speed.
While we can’t talk about fuel economy, there’s lots to say about the Bolt’s energy use. The car’s 120-volt power cord takes two days (!) to fully recharge the battery using any household outlet, while an aftermarket 240-volt charger (which uses a standard dryer outlet) will fill the battery from empty in about 9.3 hours. Optional is DC fast charging capability, which allows the car to use SAE Combo 400-volt Level 3 charge stations that can fill the battery to 80 percent in little more than an hour.
The Bolt uses its electrons wisely, but only under ideal conditions. The car’s 383-km range can be extended on a mild day while sticking to the speed limit on a flat, secondary highway. But drive at 120 km/h or faster with the air conditioner or heater on, and the range declines rapidly – which is why the car’s computer estimates range three different ways. The battery’s efficiency degrades as it ages, too.
“The battery is rated at 417 km when fully charged. I have under 10,000 km on my car, but when fully charged it shows a range of 280 km,” one driver remarked online.
The Bolt got updated for the 2020 model year with a battery capacity increase to 66 kWh, which boosted the range to 417 km, in response to new competition in the guise of the Hyundai Kona EV and Kia Niro EV. Higher-definition rearview and surround-view cameras addressed a bugaboo owners had with earlier models.
OWNERS TALK RELIABILITY
Chevy Bolt owners praise their cars for the spacious accommodations, nimble handling and quick acceleration. It drives more like an Italian convertible than a tall hatchback, and is free of the artificial feel that some hybrids exhibit. On the negative side, the interior has all the ambience of a basic rental car and the ride on broken pavement is a little rough – which is barely assuaged by the thin seats.
Happily, electric cars are the very definition of low maintenance. There’s no tailpipe, so there’s no exhaust system to rust away. Regenerative braking preserves the life of the disc brakes, which can last well over 120,000 km between brake jobs, and there’s no oil changes or engine tune-ups to do.
“The only issues we’ve had are the fact that we don’t use our brakes enough (we love driving in Low), and at one point our air conditioning drain line got clogged, resulting in some water on the front passenger-side floor,” reader Ross Richards wrote in an email.
Owners had a few reoccurring issues to report. To power the accessories and for other functions, the Bolt has a normal 12-volt car battery under the hood that is susceptible to dying, the result of a software bug that won’t let it recharge (an update can fix the condition).
Similarly, the powertrain battery may not take a charge. A fault with the fusible link in the high-voltage system may be the culprit. It may also have issues charging fully, sometimes due to a cell being damaged (range will decline noticeably as a result). Other problems include infotainment systems that lock up and have to be rebooted, and suspension and steering components that become noisy over time.
Regrettably, the biggest issue with the Bolt are the fires – a few unlucky drivers have reported batteries burning up spontaneously. As a result GM advised owners not to park their 2017 through 2019 Bolts within 15 metres of other vehicles and to avoid charging inside a garage.
GM announced it would replace the battery pack in all 142,000 Bolts ever made with new batteries to address the fire hazard. While supplier LG Chem will pay most of the $2-billion recall cost, the Bolt’s reputation for reliability has suffered. Production was halted last fall and may not restart after GM unveiled plans to build new all-electric trucks at the Bolt’s Michigan plant using the automaker’s new Ultium platform and batteries.
Bolt owners hoping for timely recall service are now stuck waiting for batteries that may be caught up in the global supply-chain slowdown. J.D. Power’s 2022 EV satisfaction survey reveals Bolt owners have ranked their ownership experience lowest in the segment, while the Tesla Model 3 was ranked highest. Unfortunately, we can’t recommend Chevrolet’s award-winning Bolt as a used-car buy.
The vehicle was provided to the writer by the automaker. Content and vehicle evaluations were not subject to approval.
2017-2021 Chevrolet Bolt
BODY STYLE: Five-passenger subcompact EV
DRIVE METHOD: Front-engine, front-wheel drive; 1-speed transmission
ENGINE: permanent magnet motor/generator (200 hp, 266 lb-ft)
FUEL ECONOMY: NA
CARGO VOLUME: 479 litres (16.9 cu ft)
TOW RATING: NA
PRICE: $29,500 (2017); $42,000 (2021)
WEBSITE: Chevrolet.ca
Keyword: BUYING USED: 2017-2021 Chevrolet Bolt