A few weeks, ago, Chevrolet quietly introduced a new Rear Seat Delete Package for the 2018 Bolt EV, essentially resulting in the Chevy Bolt Cargo. Though not officially announced or explained by the Bowtie until its national dealer conference in Las Vegas at the beginning of the month, the move is unquestionably part of a push to expand the audience of the electric car by making it more appealing to fleet and commercial customers looking for a van (otherwise known as a light commercial vehicle, or LCV). Though we like the idea of expanding the Bolt’s target audience and Bolt sales volume, we are convinced that Chevy could have Found New Roads by going further and doing more with the package, rather than cutting corners.
The Package
Those unfamiliar with the Bolt’s Rear Seat Delete package should know that it is assigned RPO code K1T and contains the following equipment:
- Rear seat delete (ATZ)
- Modified airbag system (AYG), including:
- Driver and front passenger dual-stage frontal airbags, includes Passenger Sensing System
- Head-curtain side-impact and thorax side-impact seat-mounted for front outboard seating positions
- Driver and front passenger knee airbags
- Tire inflation kit (KTI)
- 16″ steel wheels (PWM)
- 205/55R16 all-season blackwall tires (Q1N)
- Incomplete vehicle designation (VXT)
We don’t imagine that any retail customer, or any other non-commercial customer, for that matter, would opt for such an option for a personal-use vehicle. In other words, it’s pretty safe to say that the target market for the Bolt Cargo are commercial customers that will use the vehicle to transport various materials and other forms of cargo.
In all, it’s difficult to argue with the notion that the Chevy Bolt EV Rear Seat Delete is for commercial customers in the market for a cargo van. Keep that in mind as we move along.
Close But No Cigar
So if the target market are commercial customers, then we see no use in Rear Seat Delete Bolts having a regular set of rear doors. Instead, those traditional doors should have been replaced by sliding units that provide better access to the cargo area. Or, at the very least, Chevy should have paneled out the entire rear door, or the rear windows of those doors, as we don’t imagine the glass in the rear doors interacting all that well large cargo items.
To add insult to injury, the Bolt Cargo continues with the exact same door panel inserts inside the vehicle as the regular passenger version of the vehicle. Something tells us that the cargo residing in the back of a Bolt EV will have absolutely no use for the door-mounted armrests, exit handles, or the window up/down controls.
Similarly, the Bolt Cargo package should have replaced the top-hinged tailgate with either barn doors or a side-hinged tailgate. A top-hinged tailgate is not at all attractive to commercial users, which is why it’s not available on any compact commercial van – including the Ford Transit Connect, Ram ProMaster City, or the Nissan NV200, a rebadged version of which was briefly sold as the Chevrolet City Express.
In all, Bolt Cargo / Rear Seat Delete package reeks of GM corner cutting measures and taking the easy way out in offering a half-baked product, rather than evaluating the needs of potential customers and offering what they truly want – something that purveyors of other compact commercial vans like Ford, Ram/Fiat and Nissan have all done.
A Stop Gap?
Production of the Bolt EV was recently expanded at the GM Orion plant, and we imagine that the introduction of and expected demand for this Bolt Cargo option is partially responsible for the expansion. Since the package leaves a lot to be desired for commercial customers looking for true cargo-carrying capacity, we’re hoping that the Rear Seat Delete package is simply a stop gap in GM’s product lineup until the automaker introduces a true compact van, especially now that the abominable City Express has been discontinued.
Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts in the comments just below and follow our coverage of Chevy Bolt news.
Comments
Agree
But I disagree even more.
It’s a light cargo van. I see it for small city mom/pop kind of places use it to shuffle small packages or maybe flowers/plants around to buyers. It could very well be a stop/gap.
Why not for Ice-Cream Purposes?
There is all electric cargo Van coming up on a new electric chassis.
My best guess is the primary customer of a seatless Bolt EV is most likely GM themselves utilizing Maven’s Gig platform which allows drivers to rent a Bolt EV weekly if they’re performing a “gig” like delivering packages…
Look at the top photo:
https://www.maven.com/us/maven-moments/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-san-francisco-rideshare-driver.html
GM is admittedly somewhat lazy when it comes to commercial vehicles. Why they haven’t developed and launched a new generation of cargo van at this point is beyond me. The tooling may have long been paid off on the Express, but they could still follow Ford’s strategy with the Econoline and sell chassis cab and cutaway versions while introducing Euro-style vans.
They would design a new van but that big pile of cash that keeps coming in from existing Express and Savana sales keeps covering up the drawing board…….
Chevy’s Bolt is like the Trax, a cute little guy and there’s only so much you can do.. although one can imagine the Chevrolet of Shanghai ready to do what Cadillac of China did which is to try stretching the Bolt; cut the Bolt in half and add 10-inches to the wheelbase which will increase interior volume for the cargo or give rear passengers more valuable inches of leg-space.
I think GM would be much further ahead developing a small EV or hybrid cargo van from scratch rather than this cobbled up solution.
GM has certainly made some bad decisions in the past but I cannot possibly believe that someone at GM either thought this exact configuration would greatly increase fleet or Bolt EV sales…This configuration was purposely built for a reason…Assuming ANY fleet/govt can even order this option, I’d imagine there was already a customer mass ordering this configuration and/or GM developed this configuration primarily from themselves…If we look at Maven Gig, it was just recently announced around the same time as the Bolt EVs production increase and now last week “GM’s Maven car-sharing unit will get its own dedicated EVgo network of fast-charging stations, EXCLUSIVELY for the use of Maven Gig drivers who operate all-electric Bolt EVs.” Before EV don’t produce tailpipe emissions, its possible they could drive inside one buildings in many of GM many campus…
The idea is super but needs a little more imagination. Why the rear doors and its inside gear? They will only get in the way and damaged looking ugly. The rear hatch needs to be deeper to the center of the vehicle with a step down hatch that can form. Solar companies in Tucson AZ use Chevy bolts, they need a way to slide a folding latter in the center and nice storage bins. Why the glass windows? In big cities they would only be broken by thief’s, with the center cage it would be difficult to enter form the DR and Pass side. With the rear/side doors it would only encourage drivers to stuff people in the rear that could be a safety issue.
But I do not care.
You think that they would WANT to remove the rear door(s) and the stuff on it (handles, window buttons) to reduce weight and increase the range.
So what the Monday morning quarterbacks here are saying is that this vehicle would be better if it was completely redesigned…….though of course still available RIGHT NOW and without any increase in price or reduction in range too……
I think what Chevrolet did was to make a Bolt EV more attractive to fleet customers at the lowest possible price.
The hint is steel wheels and not fabricating anything for the side doors.
This should be the cheapest Bolt when bought in quantity. Little to no development, tooling, validation costs.
Yes, they could have made a better one. But probably not a cheaper one when you consider changeover costs.
If it sells? Then maybe put some development money into it to yield a superior product.
Potential clients? Amazon, Pizza chains, UPS/FedEx in older innercities, USPS, Courier Services, Flower shop chains, etc. No forklift, no heavy loads.
Remember the HHR cargo option? Or offer it in an AWD TRAX – nuff said.
That looks worse than an amateur conversion. The headache rack is in the way, and eliminates quite a bit of cargo space. You could probably do better by cutting a piece of 3/4 plywood and carpeting that, and removing the seat and adding mounts yourself. After making a pattern, you could have a metal shop make window block-offs, get them painted, and have a glass shop remove the back windows (probably for free if you let them keep them)
It would cost FAR less to do it yourself and be better.
The glaring problem is the plastic trim on the hatch opening bottom that would get destroyed in a few weeks of use!