Chevrolet has confirmed it will build a production version of the Bolt concept it showed at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit earlier this year, but they’ve yet to say which markets it will be available in. The United States and Canada are a given, but what about Europe?
Seeing as Chevrolet no longer operates in Europe, the Bolt would have to be rebranded as an Opel, or as a Vauxhall in Great Britain. This seems within the realm of possibility when you consider the type of product the Bolt is. We’ve heard nothing about the production version, but the concept is a hatchback with an MPV-type shape, a vehicle segment that is much more popular in Europe than in North America.
Also helping create a case for the Bolt in Europe is its all-electric powertrain. In Europe, where gasoline and diesel prices are more and emissions regulations are stricter, there’s better reasoning for consumers to seek out an all-electric vehicle. All electric vehicles are also able to dodge the congestion charges currently in place in cities like London and Stockholm, which may become more wide spread in the future.
If the production Bolt remains a hatchback, it would also fit nicely into Opel/Vauxhall’s hatchback-heavy lineup, which includes the Corsa, Karl/Viva, Adam, Meriva, Zafira Tourer, Astra and more. So should General Motors do it? It seems like a smart enough to decision to us, but let us know if you disagree by voting and commenting below.
Comments
Yes
Why not as a Chevrolet and bring back Chevy to Europe. Who hell stated that Chevy should go out from Europe pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
Because Chevrolet doesn’t/didn’t have any brand equity in Europe.
The C7 is still available and will continue as a low-volume car, but it’s very difficult to convince Europeans that Chevrolet is anything other than a sports-car manufacturer when all they have in the C7, Camaro, and faint distant memories of rebadged Daewoos from a decade ago.
The real question is how much of a market is there in Europe. So far you see little about electric vehicles playing a big roll over there yet.
If and when the time is right I would statically place these in as Opel’s and Vauxhall’s in cities where you could grow a segment for them. Until then I would focus more on proper diesels and small engine in the other cars as this is the future of Europe with the trends of the laws many areas are passing like London’s inter city tax on cars.
GM may also lobby for incentives with many of the regions there to give advantages for such vehicles.
With Ampera gone, Bolt will fill a niche within the Opel line up. The vehicle would certainly do no harm to the division’s bottom line if imported.
This could also lead to the development of a Karl family of vehicles since Bolt is clearly a (much) more attractive Karl, Viva, Spark.
GM would be smart to tool only one factory for this project much like is being done for the next generation Insignia bound Buick.
If nothing else, Bolt will provide Opel a green halo of sorts currently lacking. It makes the company appear more tech savy.
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