After months of waiting to see what’s in store for the 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV, the wait is finally over – as GM has published the order guide for its battery EV. The changes are not at all grandiose, as the 2018 Bolt gets only two changes.
The first involves replacing the heated steering wheel feature with the automatic heated steering wheel, which automatically turns when the vehicle deems it so fit.
The second change is the deletion of the front passenger setback map pocket from the 2LT model.
And that’s it; there are no super duper autonomous driving options or changes to the reflective dashboard. Perhaps those will arrive for the 2018 interim (2018i) model year, or later.
More Information & Reporting
- Chevrolet info
- Chevrolet Bolt EV info
- 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV info
- 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV info
- 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EVÂ updates, changes, new features
- 2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV order guide
- 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV info
- Chevrolet Bolt EV info
- General Motors news
- Running General Motors sales numbers
- Running Chevrolet sales numbers
- Running Chevrolet Bolt sales numbers
- Running Chevrolet sales numbers
Comments
One has to think that if Cadillac’s Super-Cruise works as well as tests have shown, this will be made available as an option in almost every GM vehicle just like OnStar; but Chevrolet needs to continue to tweak the Bolt like checking on whether the electric motor builder has something more efficient or if the battery provider has something in the same capacity that might be lighter because standing still is letting the competition catch up.
Chevy designs the electric motors. Just as they do the battery chemistry.
Correct, the electric drive motor was a GM design. But the battery chemistry, I believe, was a combined collaboration with GM and LG Chem. LG manufactures the electric motor and battery in South Korea. LG is building a plant in the US for electric car part manufacturing. The Bolt’s electric motor is already extremely efficient. To make the car more efficient, the battery weight could come down with more advancing battery technologies as mentioned by omegatalon above. However the Bolt’s battery is already much lighter per kW than the Chevy Spark.
Sources:
1. Manufacture of the battery, motor, and drive unit started in August 2016 at LG, Incheon, South Korea” from Korea Times “LG gears up for new era in auto parts industry” – Date: 08-17-2016.
2. “Chevrolet Develops Bolt EV Using Strategic Partnership – Engineers from GM and LG Electronics partner on critical components”
10-20-2015 website at media dot Chevrolet dot com
3. “Deep Dive: Chevrolet Bolt Battery Pack, Motor And More” from insideevs dot com
GM appears to be focusing on making the vehicle lighter so they can use fewer cells for the same range and lower cost and weight.
Because all these bolts with these super-cruise, are with gm’s car share program, on these streets as of right now, in different states.
Super Cruise was suppose to be an option in the 2017 Bolt, but it was not ready in time. However, I still think Chevy will add Super Cruise as an option in the Bolt to compete with Tesla’s Auto-pilot feature. I think that would be a wise move on GM’s part to add Super Cruise as an option in the 2018 Bolt. PLEASE THUMBS UP THIS COMMENT IF YOU WANT TO SEE SUPER CRUISE AS AN OPTION IN THE 2018 BOLT.
The only thing I want to see in the Bolt is lower cost.
Hopefully they fix the qc issue with the seats, some Bolts have extremely uncomfortable seats that seem to have improper amounts of stuffing/padding (too little).
These super cruise that’s in these Cadillac’s will not be these same in these bolt. These is going to be a different system that they are building it themselves.
Dear Speedy, Please post the source for your information on this. Thanks.
Nice to see that de-contenting is alive and well at GM. On a vehicle that can cost up to 44K!
Turns on when the vehicle sees fit. NO THANKS. Even at our usual -40 C winters, I don’t want a heated steering wheel or heated seats.
The car MAY turn the wheel and seats on but that doesn’t mean you can’t override! Switch is right on the wheel. I don’t like the heated seats much but my wife does. If it gets real cold I’ll turn on a seat to a low setting if it will keep me more comfortable so I can save significant miles over relying on just cabin heat.
With a couple of tweaks to the sheetmetal.. the Chevrolet Bolt can be transformed into a CUV similar to Chevy’s Trax and makes you wonder would that improve the EV’s appeal to even more people.
That is what Buick is doing when they release the Buick version of the Bolt. It will look similar to the Encore which is the Buick version of the Chevy Trax. Yes, I think it would appeal to more people.
Source: “Report: Buick Electric Vehicle Coming Based On Chevrolet Bolt EV” by Sean Szymkowski — Jul 31, 2017 from GMAuthority dot com
The order form won’t download/display properly. Any pricing changes announced?
Dear GM
What I would like GM to make is a Malibu or impala sized electric sedan with a range of 500 mile (no not kilometres). In the province of British Columbia Canada it is usual to drive 500 miles a day then overnight in a hotel and continue the trip the next day. This would allow charging overnight. Also, as small towns are found along the route, most don’t have any chargers. It would be great if a fast charger was built into the car as even the towns of 25000 to 100,000 people only have level 2 chargers. The fast charger could be plugged into a standard 110-120 volt outlet available at most hotel/motel parking lots. I think sales would surge if this could be done. The Bolt is too small for many of us and the Volts roof slope over the back door makes Ingress and egress difficult. It is conducive to whacking ones head. I have owned many GM products over the years and still do but I would buy electric but not what you have now. I don’t want to wait years to replace my current vehicle.
Thank you and get to work on this.
Brian Lennan