Global Courant 2023-04-25 20:48:03
General Motor Co. said Tuesday it will end production of its electric Chevrolet Bolt later this year as it shifts zero-emission production to trucks and SUVs built on a new battery platform.
“We have progressed to the point where it is now time to plan to end Chevrolet Bolt EV and EU production, which will happen at the very end of the year,” GM CEO Mary Barra told investors Tuesday.
The largest US automaker sold 38,120 Bolt EVs in 2022 – up from 24,828 in 2011 – and 19,700 in the first three months of the year. The Bolt, GM’s first mass-market EV, still accounts for more than 90 percent of all GM EV sales in the US.
The Bolt was preceded by the Chevrolet Volt – a plug-in hybrid that GM ended production in 2019. In the late 1990s, GM built and leased approximately 1,100 EV1 cars.
The Bolt, which starts at $26,500 US and qualifies for a $7,500 US federal tax credit, has been repeatedly touted by the Biden administration as an example of an affordable EV.
Expansion of production of electric trucks and SUVs
In January 2022, GM said it would invest $4 billion US in its Orion Township Assembly plant building the Bolt to produce Chevrolet Silverado EV and the electric GMC Sierra using the next-generation Ultium EV platform.
GM said its Detroit-Hamtramck and Orion plants could build more than 600,000 electric trucks a year by the end of 2024.
Barra said when the Orion reopens in 2024 and reaches full production, employment will almost triple.
GM expects to build 400,000 EVs in North America from 2022 to mid-2024 and increase capacity in North America to one million units per year by 2025.
Barra said Tuesday that the automaker expects its battery plant in Warren, Ohio, to reach full capacity by the end of the year.
The automaker is in the process of converting its plants in Canada to make electric vehicles, with the CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, set to make electric vans and a propulsion plant in St. Catharines also turning to make electric motors.
In August 2021, GM announced a $2 billion recall it had extended to all 140,000 Bolt vehicles it produced due to the risk of battery fire. The recall prompted GM to halt production and sales of Bolt for more than six months.
