Chevy Bolt EUV could be your last chance for low-price electric vehicle
The 2023 EUV is a step up from the Bolt EV — literally. It’s no larger, or faster, or fancier, but pretty much it sits up higher. But both versions will be gone by the end of the year.
2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV Premier: Last-chance, low-price electric.
Price: $37,885 as tested.
Conventional wisdom: Car and Driver likes that it’s “roomy for its size,” with an “eager electric power train and plenty of tech including available SuperCruise,” but dislikes the “commonplace styling, commonplace interior design, commonplace performance.”
Marketer’s pitch: “America’s most affordable EV.”
Reality: Bye-bye affordability, as the Bolt EV and EUV are being discontinued.
What’s new: The Bolt EUV debuted in 2022 to offer a taller version of the tiny Bolt EV. It offers the same power train and surprisingly no more cargo space than the original, which came out in 2017.
For 2023, Bolt EUV advertises a big price drop, down $6,300 for the model year.
Despite the bad press on the more than a dozen fires caused by battery manufacturing defects leading to a recall, the Bolt and Bolt EUV enjoyed brisk sales in 2022. Suddenly, it’s the Ford Pinto all over again, whose sales remained brisk in spite of the early model’s penchant for exploding gas tanks when rear-ended.
Competition: Kia Niro EV, Hyundai Kona Electric, Volkswagen ID.4, Toyota bZ4X.
Up to speed: The Bolt EUV, like the smaller Bolt EV, is powered by a 200-horsepower motor and features front-wheel drive. It gets to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds, according to Motor Trend.
Sport mode definitely provides the more exhilarating acceleration choice, but either mode does fine, as long as you’re not expecting top-of-the-line EV performance. But it’s certainly faster than most gasoline-powered models in its size and price range.
One-pedal driving is available, allowing more battery charge to be restored as you drive, and it functions pretty nicely with some practice. But starting out on a driveway with the vehicle in this mode made for a jerky initial driveway turnaround.
Still, it could be uncomfortable over the long haul, as Mr. Driver’s foot became exhausted when driving in places where cruise control wasn’t useful. The pedal requires continuous feeding, so back to normal mode I’d go.
On the road: The Bolt EUV certainly feels like a small, light car. It handled country roads nicely and wasn’t too rough, although certain road features like railroad crossings came through jarringly. Sport mode did make the steering more lively.
A trip from Chester County into Philadelphia showed the vehicle had surprisingly nice highway manners; road seams were handled well, and the car stayed in lane.
General Motors Super Cruise hands-free driving has wended its way from upscale vehicles like the Cadillac CT6 all the way down to the level of the Bolt. This provides some of the best semiautonomous driving a buyer could ask for, and the kind of monitoring that other drivers on the road should demand. On the Bolt EUV, it’s part of the $2,200 Super Cruise Package.
Shiftless: The transmission controls follow GM’s more standardized row of PRND. Park is a button and the rest are pull tabs. This is all fine, until one realizes the parking brake can easily be mistaken for Drive, so trying to maneuver without looking at the selector can make for some awkward moments. (“The stupid. Thing. Won’t. GO! Oh, heh, heh, wait a minute …”)
Driver’s Seat: The seat is comfortable but sits tall and straight, so the Bolt EUV feels like the world’s tiniest city bus.
Play some tunes: Sound from the Bose 7-speaker system ($2,495, but also including sunroof) is surprisingly clear, about an A.
The large 10.2-inch touchscreen is easy to see and operate, but it sits at an angle that seems prone to projecting sun glare. (I can only hypothesize this, as a February test week is not prime time for sun glare in Southeastern Pennsylvania.)
Keeping warm and cool: The cabin temperature is controlled by a series of clever toggles on the bottom of the dashboard. Toggle up to raise the temperature or turn up the seat heaters or fan, toggle down to cool or turn on the ventilators or lower the fan speed. It’s a pretty clear way to handle a more complex system and arrange all the stuff; score one for Chevrolet, which has not been known for organization.
Buttons direct the rest of the functions.
Friends and stuff: Because passengers are riding tall, people in the rear seat should find accommodations to be spacious and enjoyable. The floor is almost perfectly flat, so the center seat is not as bad as usual.
Cargo space is 56.9 cubic feet with the rear seat folded and 16.3 behind the rear seat.
Range: The Bolt EUV advertises a range of 247 miles.
The dashboard information about the range could be difficult to follow, as the gauge clearly stated a high and a low number, so I never really knew where I stood.
The Regen on Demand switch on the steering wheel also adds to the range by converting the motion of the vehicle to power. Just hold the paddle while the vehicle is coasting and capture the electricity for later use.
DC fast-charging is offered standard and can add 95 miles of charge in 30 minutes.
Where it’s built: Lake Orion, Mich.
How it’s built: Consumer Reports predicts a 1 out 5 for reliability from the Bolt. The motor was the downfall in the 2022 model.
The Bolt fires probably didn’t do much for this rating or to make GM reconsider keeping this cheap EV alive.
In the end: Maybe given that reliability history, we oughta see the Bolt for the Vega that it really was. Or the Monza. Or the Cruze. (A lineage of small cars Mr. Driver’s Seat once called “sucktacular.”) Geez, GM hasn’t served small-car buyers all that well.