General Motors Says It Can Extend Chevy Bolt Production: Should It?

Chevrolet already resurrected the Bolt electric vehicle once. Back for the 2027 model year, the EV made a miraculous return from beyond the grave, just in time for everyone to begin canceling their own EVs. However, Mandi Damman, the Bolt EV’s executive chief engineer, told The Drive that the Bolt could live a bit longer, if only in theory.

GM announced that the Bolt would end production to make room at a Michigan plant for the new electric Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. The two suffered from production hangups and slow sales when the switch was finally made. Only after the Bolt's official death did GM decide it would rather keep the small, cheap EV on sale. Plans were made to move production to a plant in Kansas with room for the EV, but the cycle is about to begin again. GM needs that space in the Kansas facility, which seems to spell the end of the Bolt - GM has long said that this was always going to be the case.

When asked by The Drive whether the same shuffle could be done again to keep the Bolt going, Damman said: "In theory, yes." She pointed out two strong factors that could keep the Bolt around: a strong price point and customer loyalty, which were factors that initially pushed GM to bring the EV back. It is, after all, the cheapest EV in the US, starting at a hair under $29,000.

Timing, though, couldn't be worse. EV market share is less than ten percent here in the US, and automakers have spent the last year or so extending gas engines and plotting hybrids rather than spurring on EV adoption to the same degree they had in the last five years. Could EVs like the Bolt help to shift the tide towards EV adoption? Not if GM doesn't see a business case for the Bolt. Margins on cheap cars are notoriously thin, and given the current climate, it's hard to see the Bolt somehow making it through.