The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt Is a Good Electric Car, But Also a Big Lie

And now, for some reason, GM suddenly decided it wanted a slice of the electric segment pie all for itself. Well, that was only one of the signs that made this whole Bolt deal seem fishy, but since the car turned out to be more than decent, nobody thought it wise to complain. After all, it took GM a couple of decades to move on from the EV1 and join the battery-powered cars wagon, so let's not startle it and send it into a new endless slumber.

The second question mark was raised when it surfaced ^[1] that GM was only going to build around 30,000 units of its EV a year. With Tesla looking to ramp up production to 500,000 cars by 2018, GM's plans sound laughable. Have they switched roles, with GM becoming the niche manufacturer and Tesla the mass-market one?

The third GM decision concerning the Bolt that raised some eyebrows was the way the car is to be rolled out in the US. Initially, it was supposed to become available across the land at the same time, but now the decision was made to favor the states with ZEV mandates ^[2], while the others wait.

Finally, rumors began to circulate ^[3] saying GM is losing about $9,000 on every Chevrolet ^[4] Bolt is sells. That's because the Detroit company hasn't miraculously figured out a way of making a solid EV cheap enough overnight, but because it needs its ZEV credits to continue selling its more profitable ICE cars.

The sad truth is that if you buy a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt, you're essentially helping another man get his gas-guzzler. Will knowing this keep the fans of electricity from owning a Bolt? Probably not, but once the Model 3 comes along, it will be increasingly hard for GM to make a strong case for itself.

The suspicion was confirmed by JP Morgan ^[5]'s Ryan Brinkman after a talk with GM Chief Financial Officer, Chuck Stevens. The analyst concluded that the Bolt is part of an "improving array of electric vehicles from automakers which are pricing such vehicles with the aim not to turn a profit but rather to sell in sufficient volume to subsidize the rest of their more lucrative portfolios of internal combustion engine vehicles from a regulatory compliance perspective."

The only way GM could convince us it means business with its EV would be to expand the range, but the Bolt looks like a lone effort at the moment, with no other models in sight. Could this be one more proof that a leopard never changes its spots?