GM’s best-selling EV is sticking around after all.
GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra said Tuesday during the company’s quarterly earnings call that the company will produce a next-generation Chevrolet Bolt EV outfitted with its new Ultium architecture that includes a new battery cell design. The decision comes just three months after Barra had announced GM would stop producing its two top-selling EVs: the Chevy Bolt and its larger sibling, the Bolt EUV, by the end of 2023. The plan was to retool its Orion Michigan factory, which currently assembles the Bolt, for electric truck production.
“Our customers love today’s Bolt. It has been delivering record sales and some of the highest customer satisfaction and loyalty scores in the industry,” Barra said during the call with analysts. “It’s also an important source of conquest sales for the company and for Chevrolet.”
Details on this next-generation Bolt were scarce. Barra didn’t say when the next-generation Bolt EV would go into production. The automaker only generically referred to the Bolt and didn’t elaborate on whether the slightly larger Bolt EUV would be included in the reboot plans.
Barra did say this Bolt EV’s turnaround would happen on an accelerated timeline and “with significantly lower engineering expense and capital investment by updating the vehicle with Ultium and Ultifi technologies and by applying our ‘winning with simplicity’ discipline.”
GM’s Ultium architecture and battery design as well as its Ultifi software platform will be the foundation for its new slate of EVs, a portfolio that will include the Chevrolet Silverado EV, Blazer EV and Equinox EV. All three of those vehicles are launching this year.
GM also raised its 2023 guidance on Tuesday and said it would increase cost-cutting by another $1 billion as it pursues higher profits.