Chevrolet Unveils 200-Mile Bolt EV At Detroit Auto Show

MikeChino writes Tesla, take cover – General Motors is taking aim at the affordable electric vehicle market with the brand new Chevy Bolt, which was just unveiled at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show. The all-electric vehicle is able to travel 200 miles on a single charge, and it will cost about $30,000 – which puts it squarely in the ring with the Tesla Model 3. According to the article, "Chevrolet is planning to launch the Bolt EV in 2017, and inside sources say that it will be available in all 50 states."

Comments

Bolt or Volt?

[verucabong]

Is this to presume that they'll discontinue the Volt? The names are so similar I could see confusion here...

Only 30 Grand?

[CanHasDIY]

Wow, only $30,000 for a car with less than half the range of my $27,000 Volkswagen TDI? Where do I not sign up?

Seriously though, it would be nice if Chevy tried to one-up the competition for once, rather than catch-up to them.

Re:Only 30 Grand?

[nehumanuscrede]

The drop in oil prices will be temporary at best.

While I enjoy filling up the tank and spending ~$20 atm, I know this is a very short term thing.

No one will admit to it, ( and of course I have no proof of it, so is pure speculation on my part ) but either OPEC is trying to destroy the US Shale-Oil business by pushing the price of oil through the floor, or they are working with the US to punish certain OTHER ( *cough* Russia *cough* ) countries who rely heavily on oil exports to fund their economy.

As soon as the whole Ukraine thing calms down, expect oil to make the jump back to the ~$80 / barrel range shortly thereafter.

Re:Only 30 Grand?

[DrXym]

The price of oil is low because the US & Saudi Arabia are letting it below - probably as a means to fuck with Russia. It doesn't mean it's a permanent thing and it will rise by the simple expedient of scaling back production.

Secondly, I think everyone recognises that electric vehicles are still relatively expensive but that doesn't mean they are without merit. They cost more upfront but significantly less to operate. In certain locations they also qualify for grants and reduced road charges / taxse. e.g. the London congestion charge doesn't apply to electric vehicles and there is no road tax for pure EVs in the UK. So it may well pay for itself as-is and as production quantities expand and infrastructure develops it is likely that the cost will reduce further.

Re:Only 30 Grand?

[beelsebob]

Even if the answer is a giant coal power plant, that coal power plant is much more thermally efficient than your Golf TDi. The cold TDi's engine is around 34% efficient (and that's ignoring the fact that a petrol car has a much more significant gear box and transmission than an electric, and hence loses more there, it's likely to only about 15% efficient at the wheels). Meanwhile thermal efficiency for power plants is around 60% and electric cars have thermal efficiencies around 80%, so in total about 48% thermally efficient at the wheels. That is, for the same power, an electric car will burn 3 times less fossil fuels, even if you assume that it is 100% powered by fossil fuel power plants.

Re: Only 30 Grand?

[cellocgw]

"Mean" is the same as "average" . People who think otherwise have learned just enough math to be dangerous but not enough to do anything useful.

Possibly you wish to invoke the "median."

grepping dict/words?

[drinkypoo]

So they're gonna search dict/words for ^.olt$, done and done? That won't get confusing.

Seriously, bolt and volt are going to be pronounced the same by huge numbers of people. Chevy is pretty much champion of not thinking things through?

just wait

[WindBourne]

Musk recently commented that gen 3 will be like no car before. It is possible that consumers will find it be as ugly.

Re:nope

[Rotag_FU]

The general problems are the design trade offs that occur any time when there is a direct mechanical linkage between the internal combustion engine and the drive train. The reason is because you are most likely forced to use an engine that has some greater variability in torque and rotational speed than would be necessary if there was no direct linkage.

Why does this matter? Because it likely reduces overall system efficiency. For maximal efficiency, you are better off having an engine that is custom paired to the generator, meaning that it runs at a very confined torque range and rotational speed to maximize generation of electricity since electrical generators generally work most efficiently at a specific rotational speed and fall off on either side of that speed.. This of course requires that the amount of electricity generated is enough to drive the electric motors alone (i.e. no battery support in the case that the battery is dead). By adding a direct mechanical linkage, the engine is likely to require operation over a wider range of speeds and torque and is less likely to be optimized.

Based on the specific conditions that you had indicated for when the mechanical linkage occurs (constrained torque scenario), it is possible that they were able to marry the best of both worlds in terms of efficient engine design, but I'm skeptical. Also, this setup would presumably mean that the individual drive wheels are not directly driven by electrical motors and that there is a drive shaft and differential of sorts in between the electric motor and the wheels. This likely also reduces overall efficiency than a direct drive scenario (i.e. electric motors directly connected to the individual drive wheels).

Re:I hope they succeed, but...

[Rotag_FU]

Another thought: at $30,000, I strongly suspect it is priced as a loss-leader, meaning it is being sold under cost. Tesla needs the economies of scale of their massive battery factory they call their "gigafactory" now under construction in Nevada in order to achieve a $35,000 price point for the Model 3. It seems unlikely to me that GM has managed to bring the cost down so much without a gigafactory of their own. It seems likely to me that the Model 3, at $5000 more expensive, will be superior to the Bolt in virtually every respect (Tesla has repeatedly said that their 200 mile range will be a real-world figure, while the Bolt's 200 mile range will probably be an ideal figure in perfect conditions, though I'd love to be proven wrong about the Bolt).

I won't argue the point that the Tesla 3 is likely to be superior to the Bolt. I really like the Teslas I've seen to date. However, I do question why you find it hard to believe that the $30k target will be such a significant problem for GM? Yes, Tesla hopes to achieve their price range based primarily upon the battery gigafactory, but given their distribution issues in various states and the general scale of their automotive manufacturing capability, they cannot reasonably expect to sell as many vehicles in the near to mid term (next 5 to 10 years) as GM does. GM can use their current scale to achieve cost reductions on the procurement of parts for the entire car, leverage lots of already engineered subsystems, and also are likely to have increased cost reductions in car assembly, rather than pinning the cost reduction primarily upon the batteries. Basically these are two different avenues to get an EV cost down to a "reasonable" level.

Re:Double nope

[BravoZuluM]

I drive a Volt. You've probably seen the back side of it if you drive around San Diego. Yep, it's very zippy in the 0 to 50 mph range. It is pretty rare that the engine drives the wheels. I have had it for 2 1/2 years and have 50k miles on it. The finish, interior and performance are the same as the day I bought it. GM did an outstanding job on this vehicle. The maintenance costs are extremely low. I've changed the oil twice and not because the car was telling me to. I just got uncomfortable not changing the oil. The brake pads are at 99%. They rarely get used. After driving around, you can touch the brake pads and they will still be cold. The engine in the Volt is really more like a generator. Nothing too complicated about that. The only problem this car has is the ignorant who put forth a worthless opinion that others then parrot as fact. I'd buy another Volt in a heart beat. Oh wait, I did, for my wife. It drives as well as mine does.