Chevy’s Bolt Officially Enters Production
Look out Tesla! Chevy is finally beginning production on their first, honest, not-just-leftover-Sparks-with-extra-batteries, electric car: The Chevy Bolt.
Looking at the numbers alone, the Spark has a lot going for it. The biggest sell here is the range: at 200 miles per charge, it’ll hold it’s own with Tesla’s Model S and X lines. Perhaps more importantly how far it’ll drive is how much it’ll cost. Chevy anticipates that, after incentives, the Bolt will land at $30,000 (it starts at $37,495). That’s important, because that makes the Bolt the only electric car with a 200-mile driving range and the price of a mid-size hybrid. The Prius costs a little less and BMW’s i3 costs $13,000 more, but technically, they’re hybrids. For something truly similar, you’d have to opt for the Nissan Leaf which gets half the range and twice the ugly.
Tesla intends on attacking this price point with their Model 3, but that car is currently vaporware. It’s should debut sometime in the next year, but they’ll be playing catch-up to Chevy’s offering.
Other fun numbers include the car’s 0-60 time: 6.5 seconds. Electric cars also tend to handle well due to their relatively compact size and low centers of gravity, which means that torque should make for an entertaining car as well.
Production began at their plant in Orion Township, Michigan, on November 4th. The first Bolts will strike the west coast before the year is out. The rest of the country can get their electric General Motors running in 2017.
via [Phys.org]