For Chevrolet Bolt, Cheap Is Enough

She’s nothing fancy, but the most affordable EV on the market is a sales champion.

This photo provided by General Motors shows the 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV, a small electric SUV with an EPA-estimated range of 247 miles. (Courtesy of General Motors via AP) (AP)

The race for electric vehicle bragging rights may not be decided by superlatives after all. State-spanning battery range, lightning-fast charging and six-figure price tags all fell short in the most recent quarter — at least in terms of sales.

Instead, the humble Chevrolet Bolt, an earnest and relatively dated commuter EV, led the growing pack of Tesla-chasers, posting a record 14,709 in US unit sales in the three months ended Sept. 30. In comparison, Ford Motor sold 10,400 of its Mustang Mach-E in that time. Of course, the Bolt has one critical superlative to its credit: It is by far the cheapest EV on offer.

“It's essentially giving the people what they want — something affordable,” explained Edmunds analyst Ivan Drury. “When you've priced everything up — and every generation of vehicle is costing more and getting bigger — you leave a lot of space at the bottom.”

On price, the Bolt is zigging as its rivals zag. In June, General Motors slashed the car's starting price by about $6,000, setting the window-sticker on a bare bones Bolt just shy of $27,000. Even the prosaic Nissan Leaf is going for at least $1,000 more.

Meanwhile, rival automakers, including Ford Motor and Rivian, have raised prices on a rash of new EVs. They are also reserving precious production capacity for the fanciest, most expensive variants, packed with extra features. The average sticker price for battery-powered vehicles that shipped to dealerships in July was $61,251, according to Edmunds.

The Bolt was novel when it launched in 2016, but in today's field of electric show ponies, its inconspicuousness is its most discernible trait. The car is neither large nor fast; even in its utility variant, the so-called EUV, it resembles a teenager's hatchback more than a Costco-capable SUV. The Bolt has no “gear tunnel” like the Rivian R1T, can't drive diagonally like the GMC Hummer EV and doesn't feature an electrochroamatic sunroof that goes opaque at the push of a button like the BMW iX. The Bolt doesn't even have a frunk.

It carries one of the smallest batteries in the field and charges more slowly than all but a couple of the 80 or so EVs on offer in the US. And yet, it travels at least 247 miles on a charge and displays CarPlay directions no differently than vehicles costing four times as much, albeit on a slightly smaller screen.

Perhaps most impressive is that the Bolt's sales momentum emerged from a dead stop. In the third quarter of 2021, Chevrolet sold just 4,515 Bolts in the US, trailing both the Mustang Mach-E and Volkswagen's ID.4. A few weeks later, the company idled production of the car and recalled every Bolt on the road — some 142,000 — because of rare but destructive battery fires. The stubby machine seems to have already shed any stigma from the crisis.

Chevrolet spokesman Kevin Kelly said a national advertising push helped juice demand as well. In April, the company touted the Bolt during every Major League Baseball opening day game. Its ad budget for the Bolt this year will be higher than any of its other models, save for the Silverado pickup truck.