General Motors announced in its call for investors that it will stop manufacturing the Chevrolet Bolt and the Chevrolet Bolt EUVits two best-selling electric models and those that today are the most accessible in the US electricity market.
Why did GM decide to discontinue these models? because it is reconfiguring its plant in Michigan, which until now has been producing the Bolt, to manufacture two pick-ups there, the GMC Sierra and the Chevrolet Silverado.
According to GM CEO Mary Barra, that decision is progress: “We have made so much progress that now is the time to plan for the end of production of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV.”
The idea behind this decision is that the brand knows that it is more profitable for them to produce electric vehicles with more added valuethis means that it will focus its portfolio on larger, more equipped and more expensive cars. Chevrolet will launch several new electric vehicles later this year based on the Ultium platform, including the Silverado EV, Blazer EV, and Equinox EV.
While this news may be encouraging for investors, consumers will lose the ability to access an affordable electric vehiclewhich to top it off in the US benefited from a special tax credit promulgated by Biden that meant about USD 7,500 in savings.
The decision is also explained because the Bolt, despite being the most affordable vehicle for Americans, was not the most chosen: the Chevrolet Bolt was the fifth most purchased electric car in the US last year after three of Tesla’s models and the Ford Mustang Mach-E. Against this background, it appears that GM’s decision aims to dethrone Tesla.
In addition, the company’s decision to kill the Bolt is a financial move aimed at boosting the automaker’s results in the long term, since according to private studies, as with other companies, General Motors is still losing money in its EV sector, and smaller, cheaper cars bring less profit. Going from small vehicles to practically trucks is not a movement that cares about the environment, but capitalism does not understand such things and only cares about profit.
Perhaps, thinking positively, General Motors aiming its guns at full-size electric vehicles could make Americans (infamous for their fascination with absurdly huge and polluting machines) adopt electric mobility faster and save a few grams of carbon to the planet’s air
