Chevy Bolt sales reality check??

well, the chevy bolt isnt doing as well as people thought.It seems people that like to drive out of state or longer trips in general still prefer a gas car. 238 miles isnt enough. the price is just too high. Is it time now for car companies to focus more on making the coolest looking ev with a 35/40kwh battery to sell to the urban commuter. the battery will be a third cheaper and its enough range so you wont have RA driving in the city. They wont have to worry about making the design super aero with crap eco tires that dont grip to get maximum range, which could detract from the looks and performance.. A really cool rear wheel drive electric car with a great design and a 35/40kwh battery would sell better than trying to be jack of all trades and master of none. If the spark is rated at 82 with a 21 kwh battery, than a 35 to 40 kwh battery would get 130 to 160 miles of range in the city. Thats plenty.

Go back to the 50's when gas was dirt cheap. look at how beautiful those car designs were. They didnt care how aerodynamic the cars were and concentrated solely on looks and performance. how about they use that playbook for electric cars.

As a non-ev owner, what you are saying makes a lot of sense to me. If I understand the weights and sizes correctly, if the Bolt's battery were fitted to the Spark EV, it could have 32-35kWh without increasing the weight or the size of the battery box. Figuring some range loss due to performance (or at least decent) tires, and you'd still have an EPA range of 100-125 miles, which IMHO is the sweet spot for reasonably-priced EV's.

At 125-150 miles, I believe the best compromise between range and cost could be met. Less range is too impractical for many people. More range is wasted most of the time, still is insufficient for vacations and trips, dramatically raises costs, and negatively affects performance and handling.

I really like your comments. Hopefully some manufacturers will start seeing the light and producing fun, practical, economical cars, instead of trying to replace SUV's. For some time to come, gasoline and diesel cars and trucks will continue to do somethings much better than EV's.

Given that the Bolt is still really only on sale in compliance states, the fact that it is outselling othe electric cars that are available nationwide speaks volumes. It is just behind the Leaf in sales through March (Leafs had some heavy discounting, Leafs are readily available nationwide, Leafs have much more name recognition, there have been more Leaf tv ads than Bolt ads).

Wait until it is available around the country before sounding the death knell.

Not sounding death knell, but had Chevy offered smaller battery Bolt (eg. 30 kWh), 130 miles range for around $22K post subsidy (Prius price), it would've destroyed all other EV sales. Because most other EV of today other than Tesla are around 120 miles range, it would've fit right in and dominate. They can also offer 60 kWh version to compete against low-end Tesla.

0-60 time of 6.5 sec would make it the quickest car in the world at that price, and surely have more people looking at Bolt instead of gasser. I mean, why buy ST, RS, etc. that only get 25 MPG when even quicker EV is cheaper and get infinite "MPG" with home solar?

I don't think the data supports that at all. Other cars that come close to that are not killing it in the market. Of the fully electric vehicles on the market, Tesla and Leaf are the only ones outselling the Bolt to date in 2017.

The Tesla offerings are quite a bit more money (for not much more range), yet they are the best selling fully electric vehicles. The Leaf is available in 50 states, has been offering deep discounts, has much better recognition, and yet is only a couple hundred cars in front of the Bolt (which was basicly offered in just three states for most of that same time).

If Chevy offered a lower battery version, but used the same rollout strategy, the results would have been pretty much the same.

The Ioniq hasn't really shipped yet (except in Korea, Finland and maybe a few other places).

The prices offered for the Ioniq (hybrid & all-electric) are pretty darn attractive. The "all-in" lease price for an Ioniq EV is fantastic *for some people*. For about $299/mo, for 3 years, it includes EVERYTHING, including : no mileage limit, free electricity, all maintenance costs (which should include tire replacement).

For someone who is going to drive (say) 100 miles every work day, that is a FANTASTIC deal.

The Ioniq EV has a range of 124 miles, and *announces* the highest MPGe of any electric, so we'll see if a "130 miles range for around $22K post subsidy" vehicle will "destroy all other EV sales".

SparkE said:

...The prices offered for the Ioniq (hybrid & all-electric) are pretty darn attractive. The "all-in" lease price for an Ioniq EV is fantastic *for some people*. For about $299/mo, for 3 years, it includes EVERYTHING, including : no mileage limit, free electricity, all maintenance costs (which should include tire replacement).
.....The Ioniq EV has a range of 124 miles, and *announces* the highest MPGe of any electric, .....

Click to expand...

>How do they go about offering "Free Electricity"? A Golden Chargepoint Card??

>How can they make the claim 'highest MPGe' ? Isn't that a product of the vehicle weight. Aren't all EV very efficient at turning kWH into miles? And the fatter the tires and heavier the car, the more power required to roll it down the road?
I've seen the gushing Tesla articles about their 'Ultra efficient Electric Motor'. Come on,, is that a thing?

Ioniq is rated by EPA as 136 MPGe combined. Because it has very good aerodynamics (Cd=0.24 like Tesla) and wimpy motor (80 kW), I suspect it'd do well.

EPA test involves lots of slowing down, but the way I measure efficiency is constant speed. Doing some searches, it's not clear if Ioniq will be better than SparkEV. Most numbers from forum posts show it slightly less than SparkEV while one number is way more. Since I tested in SoCal weather (about 60F) while they tested in Europe (about 5C), we'll have to wait and see.

Speaking of efficiency, as EV's get heavier (bigger batteries to get 200 miles range), I suspect efficiency will go down, especially city efficiency. If that turns out to be the case, SparkEV (or Ioniq) may remain the most efficient car in the world for a long time.