Tally another victory up for the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. Consumer Reports has named General Motors’ mass-market electric car its range champion. Yes, it went further than a comparable Tesla Model S.
A disclosure: there are Tesla Model S variants that would certainly outdo the Bolt EV. However, CR states this is not the point. Rather, the goal was to pit the Bolt EV against the most affordable Model S sedan. Even then, the Bolt EV is a bargain; a Tesla Model S with Bolt-besting range costs $100,000 or more. The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV costs $37,495 before tax credits.
Anyway, let’s get to the meat and potatoes. The 2017 Bolt EV managed to go 250 miles on a single charge before its battery was completely depleted. That also beats the EPA-estimated 238-mile range figure the electric car is sold with.
“In our electric-vehicle range test, we put the Bolt head to head against our 2016 Tesla Model S 75D. The Tesla ran out of juice at 235 miles, while the Bolt motored on for another 15 miles,” the consumer guide said.
On the other hand, the most recent tests of the Tesla Model X 90D returned 230 miles of real-world driving, compared to its EPA-estimated 257-mile range. The Model S 75D returned 235 miles in real-world testing, which falls short of its 259-mile EPA-estimated range.
Of course, most news surrounding Tesla involves the Model 3, which has officially entered production. It arrives with an EPA-estimated 220-mile range, though it offers a 310-mile range for a higher price. For now, the Bolt EV remains on top, though.
Comments
Tesla is like the Ford EcoBoost. Falling short of EPA estimates
Good for GM! They under promise and over deliver. This happened with the two Chevy Volt generations, where both delivered more electric mile range than the EPA ratings.
Sorry, Musk! Your Model S is not as great for the same price range. And you do know that the interior space in the Chevy Bolt EV is greater than the interior space of the Model S and the new Model 3. To top this off, Tesla Motors have no “dealers” and very few service shops, while GM has thousands of dealers and service shops to protect their customers.
Some may say that having no “dealers” will help Model S sales, but all your models are sold at fixed factory prices, while a “dealer” can negotiate with the buyers to lower the sale price. Tesla Motors isn’t a “leader” anymore. GM has beaten it to produce and sell since December 2016 a much better battery electric vehicle.
Tesla only wins on the fast charge if you are going 300 miles… and the car is a little higher end than the bolt….. otherwise the bolt is hard to beat….that is if you missed out on the Leaf rebate last month..
But the Bolt isn’t selling. High inventories are accumulating on dealer’s lots and they have to be discounted. Ultimately, it’s all about sales and everything else is noise.
August is the first month that the Bolt will be sold in all states. Plus they sold 1936 in July. Tesla sold 30 Model 3 to employees.
And you should also indicate that Bolt capacity is limited to about 20K units per year while the Model 3 will ramp up to 40K units per month in 2018.
Regardless, the limited number of Bolts available are sitting on dealers lots. Tesla has over 500K in reservations with deposits. Like Trump would say: “Sad”.
Let’s see–Tesla lost another quarter billion this quarter!
The objective of the business model is to make money!
The only problem our media only knows about Tesla. They are the Tesla Hype Machine. We don’t see or hear anything about the Bolt in the news. GM own P/R Dept. doesn’t use any of the good news to sell their products. I get 2 video’s a day from Auto News .com almost no GM product news
GM just wants to sell enough money losing Bolts to get the ZEV credits needed to be able to sell high profits SUVs and pickups.
I hope that isn’t the case because that thinking would bury GM. Tesla intends to dominate and lead the electric car transition with the best product available. You may notice that Tesla exceeds the market cap of GM with shares up 6.7% today.
there are a lot more customers for SUVs and pickups than for electric cars. there is no advantage to the average person to own a electric car as some places the electricity cost to charge the battery costs more than gasoline to drive the same distance.
That’s not the case for most of the world outside the US. But here’s one:
http://www.carscoops.com/2017/07/musk-says-tesla-model-3-can-travel.html
At one time Enron also had a higher market then GM, thanks to analysts and the media
It’s unfortunate that GM doesn’t promote the Volt or Bolt. I have a 2014 volt. 15,000 dollars. 35,000 miles and it’s the best car I have ever owned. If people only people would check this car out they would be sold. The greatest advertisers for the volt/ bolt are owners. In the warm weather I am averaging 48 miles all electric driving. Adds about 40 dollars per month to my electric bill. I get 37 on the highway with my 9 gallon gas tank driving the electric motor when battery runs out. These are real world numbers. I plug in at night and next morning the car is fully charged. It is a supremely comfortable car. Well built. The 0-40 mph acceleration is alarming. But 0-60 takes 8.1 seconds. I’ll smoke you at the light every time up to 40mph. And thats enough for me.
This had me LOLing, seriously…”I’ll smoke you at the lights (sic) every time up to 40mph”
I had visions of a huge burnout to pre-warm the tyres…….LOL
Like the song from yesteryear.. we’ve only just begun especially given the Paris Climate Accord and Europeans saying they will only allow cars that are zero emission or electric to be sold; this means General Motors should begin advertising in Europe today of how they don’t need to wait until 2040 as they can try saving the environment today with the purchase of the Chevrolet Bolt.
In places like Europe when you drive a couple hundred miles you reach a border and need a passport the states are different. I drive 200 miles one way to get to camp to either ride our ATVs or snowmobiles depending on the season. having all ZEV will not work in the USA.