“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
—Henry Ford
This past week, Chevrolet introduced its new 2017 Chevy Bolt electric vehicle and to the surprise of some, it’s worth a second look. Some men wonder if Chevy has managed to outdo Tesla in the EV market. Given that I’ve already invested in Tesla, I wanted to take a good look at this one.
The Bolt has a range of about 320 kilometres (200 miles). Not quite what my car promises but still pretty impressive. Perhaps its most attractive feature is the price tag: $37,500 US, nearly $100,000 less than the Signature Edition Model X. (Prices drop when tax incentives are taken into account, though.) And to be honest, the Bolt EV isn’t bad looking.
Justin Westbrook from Jalopnik says this of the Bolt:
It’s not all about Tesla though, as the Chevy Bolt looks to be a serious attempt by the company to grow the electric vehicle market, and with a price of around $30k and a range of around 200 miles — and maybe more importantly a design that will be acceptable to the mainstream automotive customers — Chevy’s EV has a serious shot at being a hit.
To no surprise (t least to me), Tesla has seemed pleased by Chevy offering this kind of competition, stating:
Commitments from traditional car makers to build electric vehicles advance Tesla’s mission to accelerate the advent of sustainable transportation. We hope to see all those additional zero-emission vehicles on the road.
Makes sense. The more that bigger automotive manufactures get into the EV game, the more these vehicles are validated as mainstream and ready for prime-time.
I’m happy the Bolt is coming, but I’m still very happy with the Tesla I’ll be getting. In the style and design category, I don’t think there’s any competition. One drawback for the Bolt EV is that it takes a full nine hours to charge with a 240-volt charging unit which requires professional installation. Tesla’s Supercharger network on the other hand takes just 30 minutes of charging to get a range of 275 kilometres (170 miles) on the Model S.
So I’m happy. Tesla is happy. Chevrolet and its customers are happy. And our planet is happy.