Photo: Chevrolet
Even though it’s been upgraded for the 2019 model year with Tire Fill Alert and a new paint option called Shock, the Bolt EV is struggling. Hyundai and Tesla are taking the competition to General Motors with the Kona Electric and Model 3, translating to a nosedive for the electric hatchback from the Orion Township in Michigan.
GM Authority has the numbers, and the Bolt tanked 41 percent in the third quarter of 2018 in the United States of America. Chevrolet sold 3,949 examples of the breed compared to 6,710 in the third quarter of 2017. Coincidence or not, sales are on the rise in Canada, Mexico, and South Korea, but we’re not talking about the kind of volume that matters to the beancounters.
The Bolt EV is “in fifth place in the dedicated electric and dedicated electrified vehicle segment” according to the cited publication, citing a chart with the sales figures for mainstream small battery electric cars. The Toyota Prius, Honda Clarity, Chevrolet Volt, and Nissan Leaf take up the first four places.
Turning our attention to Tesla, the Palo Alto-based automaker sold… wait for it… 22,250 examples of the Model 3 in September 2018. The year-to-date figure blew past 100,000 at the beginning of December 2018, with some people estimating no fewer than 114,472 units of the electric sedan. In the U.S. of A. alone!
What’s important to understand from this turn of events is that General Motors is stagnating as far as EVs are concerned. A far cry from the EV1 of the 1990s, the Bolt doesn’t cut it any longer. Adding insult to injury, Chevrolet didn’t learn anything from the failed experiment known as the Spark EV.
This state of affairs can be best summed up by the personnel change announced by General Motors. Camaro chief engineer Al Oppenheiser will lead the EV Program starting from January 2019, and based on his achievements with the Gen 5 and Gen 6, we’re keeping our fingers crossed Al will turn things around for the better.
The Bolt EV is “in fifth place in the dedicated electric and dedicated electrified vehicle segment” according to the cited publication, citing a chart with the sales figures for mainstream small battery electric cars. The Toyota Prius, Honda Clarity, Chevrolet Volt, and Nissan Leaf take up the first four places.
Turning our attention to Tesla, the Palo Alto-based automaker sold… wait for it… 22,250 examples of the Model 3 in September 2018. The year-to-date figure blew past 100,000 at the beginning of December 2018, with some people estimating no fewer than 114,472 units of the electric sedan. In the U.S. of A. alone!
What’s important to understand from this turn of events is that General Motors is stagnating as far as EVs are concerned. A far cry from the EV1 of the 1990s, the Bolt doesn’t cut it any longer. Adding insult to injury, Chevrolet didn’t learn anything from the failed experiment known as the Spark EV.
This state of affairs can be best summed up by the personnel change announced by General Motors. Camaro chief engineer Al Oppenheiser will lead the EV Program starting from January 2019, and based on his achievements with the Gen 5 and Gen 6, we’re keeping our fingers crossed Al will turn things around for the better.
Google News