Chevrolet ‘Listened To Customers’ For Upcoming Bolt EV Refresh
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Chevrolet “listened to customers” in deciding on updates to the Chevy Bolt EV. That much is according to Vice President of Marketing at the Bow Tie brand, Steve Majoros, who shared the small tid-bit about the upcoming Bolt EV refresh during a recent media call attended by GM Authority.
The 2022 Bolt EV refresh has not yet been revealed, but we have seen many a prototype undergoing testing more than a few times. For our part, we expect all kinds of updates and changes, starting with restyled front and rear fascias to improve the outward appearance of the subcompact electric car. Inside, we expect the refreshed model to feature a new cockpit, new seats and a larger infotainment screen. Based on Majoros’ comments, it’s likely that most, if not all, of these updates will have been the result of customer feedback.
According to GM’s original schedule, the refreshed Bolt EV would have already been revealed and on sale, as the vehicle’s midcycle enhancement (MCE) was intended for the 2021 model year. But obstacles created by the COVID-19 pandemic, including a two-month-long production shutdown, forced the Bow Tie brand to delay it.
As a result, changes to the 2021 Bolt EV were minimal, including the standard fitment of DC fast charging and the deletion of both the Keypass smartphone entry/start function and the Light Ash Grey with Ceramic White interior colorway. Incidentally, 2021 Bolt EV production started in November 2020.
The 2022 Bolt EV refresh is expected to go into production this summer, alongside the larger (but closely related) 2022 Bolt EUV. Both models will ride on the GM BEV2 platform and will be manufactured at the GM Lake Orion plant in Michigan. GM announced a $300 million investment in the plant in 2019 to enable it to produce electric vehicles.
As previously reported, the Bolt EUV will be offered with the Super Cruise semi-autonomous driving system, and will have a maximum real-world range of 277 miles (445 kilometers) compared with 259 miles (416 kilometers) for the present-day Bolt EV.
We’ll continue bringing you the latest about the Bolt EV and Bolt EUV, so be sure to subscribe to GM Authority for more Bolt EV news, Bolt EUV news, Chevrolet news and electrifying GM news coverage.
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Listened to customers…because that always works well.
Bring back a refreshed Cruze or verono
Chevrolet—actually, GM (oh, wait, gm)—hasn’t bothered to ‘listen to customers’ for the last couple of years. Gimme a break…..
Better hope it sells better than the Volt & Bolt before it. EV’s won’t sell in great numbers until Big Gov forces people to buy, ala California.
As long as gas is cheap there simply will not be a huge demand.
The one thing EV owners actually would like is real Fast charging – not dinking around for hour and a half at brutally tapering 50 KW.
The real question is what percentage of Bolt owners or any other EV owner “need” to fast charge. Tesla owners do it a lot, but a lot of them do it because it’s free.
1) Anyone who wants to travel long distances in a reasonable amount of time
2) Tesla SC are not free, haven’t been for years
Actually free supercharging was given for a period of time to buyers in December 2020 to push end of quarter sales of the Model 3.
It’s free for my car It’s not a tesla. I use DC fast charging weekly.
Customers said we don’t want an electric car that screams, “I’m an electric car”, so gm built a car that screams, “I’m an electric car “.
Because GM is going to wave a magic wand and suddenly batteries will have magically improved capacity and reduced size, the laws of physics are going to be changed so aerodynamics are different, their pixie dust will cause batteries not to catch on fire during a crash…
I’m guessing you haven’t seen the new Mustang EUV?
A decent design, but wrong name “Mustang”, really!
I don’t care about labels. I want an EUV that looks like, and will, handle snow and long drives and be a ‘real’ car. I can’t see sitting in a Bolt for 4 hours to go skiing while driving through snow. Just from the appearance of the car it looks like it would be an exhausting drive and I would need a thule for the skis even when I am skiing solo.
Actually, driving around in the Bolt was relaxing.
We were sad to turn it in after our lease was up.
Did you drive in it for 4 hours straight during a snow storm?
These two cars look the same to you?
https://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/chevrolet/news.modal.fullscreen.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2015/Jan/naias/chevrolet/bolt/0112-bolt/_jcr_content/image.html
vs.
https://images.app.goo.gl/DBgsFNEVWSSGsCxF8
I’d stay away from the Mustang EUV too if I had to drive in areas of poor, snowy road conditions removed from easy access to electric charging infrastructure. A gas powered sport utility vehicle of some sort would make more sense in that scenario. It might not make much of a style statement, but Toyota Highlander V6 Hybrid with its AWD system would be good balance of high reliability, practicality and efficiency. I would stay away from BMW 5 series X drive cars and SAVs which while arguably more stylish have high maintenance costs – for example, when replacing the 12 Volt battery, it must be done (expensively!) by a dealer because it requires proprietary software for reprogramming the car’s computer to reset the battery charge profile.
I understand your point, however, it’s missing my point. Driving in a bolt in a snowstorm for 4 hours does not appear, based on how the EUV looks, to be something I would be willing to deal with and is a deal breaker in terms of my purchasing the vehicle. Driving in a mustang EUV for 4 hours in a snowstorm, based on the appearance of the vehicle and disregarding charging station availability appears to be doable and not a deal breaker in terms of considering purchasing the vehicle.
How does the Bolt scream “I’m an electric car”?
It looks like you’re average compact hatchback to me, but I don’t have a baseless preexisting opinion that I feel compelled to justify.
You don’t see any difference between a bolt and a mustang EUV?
They could just electrify the Blazer and Trailblazer
I’m hoping Mary Barra can give me one before I leave office. I secretly love these EVs. Who needs big oil now that they won’t contribute to my campaigns anymore! Oh well. 🤣
Love, your friend,
Donnie T……
(PS Please don’t tell Mike P. that I’m asking for just myself – I may need that pardon after all. Just sayin’)
“…..Listened to customers? ” Supposedly since there is a dashboard display on a test Bolt EUV that got 235 miles of range left (after driving it for the past few days at 20 mph in moderate weather, no doubt) – that the new Bolt EUV is going to get 277 miles?
Without an official statement from Chevrolet?
Or that is has been oft repeated here on GM AUTHORITY that the Bolt EUV will have the SAME battery (66 kwh when new) as the current 259 mile, smaller, Bolt EV?
Sounds like fake news to me.
The only thing GMA has also said is that it will have an 11 kw home charger – I’m presuming this is OPTIONALLY available, since I’d think they’d have the 7.7 kw standard bolt ev/2019 premier volt charger to put in for those who don’t want to spend extra money, and IF the battery is going to be the same size, then the same size charger will work as well, but there is such a dearth of info coming from Chevrolet that people apparently are starting to make stuff up, or ‘dream up’ specifications without any authoritative information.
So if there are styling changes they’ll probably make the front look more Japanese and less Korean.. We’ll see..
Also – the author states that DC FAST CHARGING is standard…
Former GM Authority articles stated DC FAST CHARGING is only standard on the PREMIER trim, and that on the LT model it is optional…
So, Which is it?
This article incorrectly states the plant received 300 million in 2019 to build EVs, in fact it has been building EVs since 2016. It received 300 million to build the Bolt EUV.
Supercruise although a great feature will just make this a harder sell than it already is price wise.
GM needed to make a Bolt SUV….that would sell much better than an ugly hatchback.
Could have borrowed designed cues from the 2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer.
I’ll express a little skepticism about gm listening to customers. I have a Bolt and gm did indeed send me a few surveys not long after I bought the Bolt in 2017. Unfortunately the surveys never seem to ask the stuff about which I want to give feedback. Yeah, there is a comment section, but I have my doubts about whether what I wrote there ever made it to anyone who has input into developing future iterations of the Bolt.
Gm did a great job with the BEV2 platform on which the Bolt is based. The Bolt power train feels way more refined than the Nissan LEAF which I had first. The BEV2’s blend from regeneration to friction braking is very seamless. Yeah, it would be nice if it charged faster and had a larger battery, of course. That could be said for essentially any EV. It will be interesting to see the forthcoming gm Ultium platform in the next round of gm EV models.
GM, the only auto company to ask blind people for Bolt refresh!
Looks like GM asked blind people!
Just changing the front clip doesn’t make it look less like a minivan. Smh. That A pillar just makes the bolt look so uncool. The bolt won’t be attractive to mainstream buys until they bring the whole thing back to the drawing board.
All of a sudden design engineers are everywhere! If you have some ideas, let’s hear it!
Literally just told you my idea. That A pillar is gross, but essentially placed for front end rigidity in this design, very similar to the Sonic. A full redesign would be needed to really changed the overall feel of the Bolt.
Style isn’t everything. I have a Bolt and I really don’t care what it looks like or what other people think it looks like. Pretty much any sport utility, crossover or minivan doesn’t do much as an art project, but they manage to find quite a few customers anyway. Sport utility has “utility” in the name and that’s the point; it isn’t about style. For EV style statements, there are Tesla, Porsche, Jaguar, etc.
When I got the Bolt, Tesla model 3 is an option I weighed and eliminated because it had limited availability at the time, cost more and had less usable interior space.
It’s just my observation. I feel like it’s a sentiment that is echoed by demand and sales volume. The Bolt sells a paltry 20k units a year… That’s not good. It’s MSRP has also plummeted over the past 3 years… Also not good. I’m glad you’re happy with your purchase and I agree it’s a very utilitarian design. However, cars don’t need to look boring or dorky to be useful.
Surprised, non buyers don’t like the Bolt.
All these expected hater comments, please tell me what’s the best selling EV outside of Tesla 3 ?…
There are plenty of other advantages to EVs over gas cars… And even the price of gas currently is more expensive than refueling electrically. If your average gas car get 30mpg @ $2.50/gal that means you are paying About $0.12 per mile… An basic EV gets around 3 miles per KW of electricity, and assuming $0.20/KW charging at home, then the cost per EV mile is less than $0.07… so ‘refueling’ your EV costs almost half as a gas car…
Other benefits are: you can make your own ‘fuel’ by having solar panels on your home, never having to stop and deal with a gas station, much lower cost of ownership (repairs & maintenance, etc), quicker acceleration/response speed, much quieter…
The economics are already in the EVs court, the tide will turn quickly
Your points are right on. I love not having to deal with gas stations. Where I live, the corner gas station with mechanic has disappeared and has been replaced by mega gas-only stations with attached junk food and cigarette stores. Pretty much to a tee, those mega stations are at high volume intersections where there is always a traffic snarl and it is a pain to get in and out. With my Bolt, I just plug it into a normal outlet when I get home and the car is ready when I leave. For the first two years I had the Bolt, I charged it on a regular 120 Volt socket. I have a 240 Volt socket now, but it really didn’t change things much.
There are times when an EV can be a potential liability. Now that wild fires are thing over a large part of the western US, the availability of electricity is not always assured. I don’t live in a fire prone area, but I do have a Honda EU2000 generator with an auxiliary 6 gallon fuel tank which in a pinch would charge my car to give me mobility. Of course most gas stations don’t have back-up generators, so availability of liquid fuel in crisis situations is not assured either.
I don’t know where your numbers come from but the truth is electrical power is produced by Crude oil, Nuclear and a small percent of coal from power plants. But I hope your numbers are correct and you are not employed by power company or other companies conglomerates that have a vested interest in electrical power.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=31232 About 1% of power was provided by crude oil in 2016 – and it’s only used during peak demand.
I will be the first to admit that EV isn’t for everyone depending on your needs and climate, so no need to imply that they aren’t for anyone.
Personally, I love never having to go to the gas station.
Natural gas, coal, nuclear supply 83% of energy needs for the grid. Renewables supply the remainder. Just giving the full picture since your post made it seem like fossil fuels weren’t the main supply. Source is same site you linked.
Long tail pipe is a fairly common contrary argument to electric cars. There are points we’ll taken that depending on where one lives, the energy source for producing electricity may be burning coal, oil, or natural gas, or nuclear decay. Hydro power also has negative environmental impacts. Wind turbines can pose risks for migratory birds. Even solar arrays have down sides. All that said, the economics of energy conversion efficiency and and sequestration of waste products of electricity produced at scale prevail over burning duffel individually in cars. An Internet search on long tail pipe will offer up papers that detail the mathematics.
They should style the Bolt more like the Volt.
I believe the reason the Bolt has its form factor is the shape of the battery housing of the BEV2 platform. The question is chicken or egg? Was it the shape of the car that spec’ed out the battery shape or the other way? Probably it was some of each. With the current BEV2 battery shape, it would not fit well into a sedan. Yes, the battery could be repackaged, but it would take time proving out the new design. The gm bean counters probably estimated that they wouldn’t sell enough Bolt sedans to justify the cost of bringing one out. Personally, I would have been a customer for one. There is Tesla Model 3, now reasonably easy to purchase, but gm still has a much larger of network of places to go when vehicles need maintenance.
They could just electrify the Blazer and Trailblazer