Chevrolet has been playing with the Bolt’s life the same way a cat plays with its prey, teasing it and giving it brief moments of hope before inevitably killing it while we all watch. The Bolt represented a rarity in the car market; it was a compact, affordable, relatively long-range EV that found homes in driveways across America, and Chevrolet first discontinued back in 2023. Chevy then incited hope when it announced that it would introduce a new Bolt for the 2027 model year, and that it would start under $30,000 and travel over 250 miles on a charge, but last week GM told Bloomberg that it would only produce new Bolts for 18 measly months before axing it again.
The heavily updated Bolt will be produced at GM’s Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kansas, but GM decided it wants to start producing the gas-powered Buick Envision and Chevrolet Equinox at that factory to avoid President Trump’s tariffs on Mexican and Chinese vehicles and parts. Sorry Bolt fans, if you miss the 18-month production run of the 2027 Bolt, you’ll have to fork over more cash for one of GM’s other EVs like the Equinox EV or the Blazer EV.
GM said that the 2027 Bolt would be a limited-run model, but we didn’t know it was that limited
President Trump’s tariffs and his decision to end the $7,500 federal EV incentive launched the U.S. car market into a tailspin that it’s still attempting to navigate. GM’s decision to move Chevrolet Equinox production out of Mexico and Buick Envision production out of China is likely to yield more profit than continued production of the Bolt, so the Bolt gets dropped.
This is particularly unfortunate because the updated 2027 Chevrolet Bolt looks to be a great affordable EV option on paper, with its NACS charge port and upgraded batteries, motors, and software. Chevy’s Equinox EV is still a fantastic choice for buyers who are looking for a larger vehicle, but the primary issue is that it starts out almost $7,000 more expensive than the $30,000 Bolt.
Chevrolet
New cars continue to get more expensive and automakers kill off more of their cheap small cars at the same time that a record number of Americans are falling behind on their auto loans. That can only end well, right? Maybe the new Bolt will sell like hotcakes and Chevrolet will pivot to produce more, or maybe more Americans will stop being poor, but for now the Bolt’s days are numbered, despite it not even being at dealers yet.
