GM's Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV just broke sales records in the US, but they won't be doing that for much longer, as it turns out. GM CEO Mary Barra announced during an investor call that the two entry-level EVs will be discontinued.
Production of the Bolt EV and Bolt EUV will be stopped by the end of this year. That's a bold move considering these two make up the vast majority of GM's EV sales to date.
Chevrolet Bolt EVThe reason is that their batteries use older designs and chemistries compared to the newer cars which are based on GM's new Ultium architecture.
A suburban Detroit plant in Orion, Michigan that has made Bolts since 2016 will be retooled to prepare for production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the GMC Sierra trucks scheduled for next year. Once it reopens and reaches full production, employment will nearly triple, and the plant will churn out as many as 600,000 electric trucks each year. GM's target is to reach a production capacity of 1 million EVs annually in the US, and another 1 million annually in China.
In the meantime, GM will make more than 70,000 Bolts this year, ending production with a bang, as they say. The Chevrolet Equinox EV, which should arrive later this year, will be one of the successors to the Bolts, along with the Blazer EV. These will be the new entry-level priced models in GM's increasingly expansive EV lineup.
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