Production of the current model will end this month.
The next Bolt EV will use the Ultium platform and new LFP batteries.
This should help keep the price down despite switching to the new platform.
In a recent press conference in Detroit, GM CEO Marry Barra announced that the next generation of the Chevrolet Bolt EV will arrive on the market in 2025.
This confirms preliminary reports that indicated the electric hatchback would take a short pause before returning to dealer lots toward the middle of the decade.
Indeed, the current model, which was launched for the 2022 model year, is already being discontinued at the end of the month.
This is because General Motors needs the Orion Assembly Plant for the production of the upcoming Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV pickups that should start rolling off the line later next year.
While the company seemed to imply the Bolt EV would be replaced by the future Chevrolet Equinox EV as its entry-level electric model, we now know that the Bolt will make a return after taking 2024 off.
Since the automaker chose to extend production of the current model until the end of 2023, this means that it will likely have built up enough stock to continue selling the current Bolt well into 2024, meaning that the time between the current model being sold out and the next generation being ready for deliveries might only be a few months.
We don’t know much about the next Bolt yet, except that it will use the same Ultium platform as all of the other electric vehicles recently unveiled by the automaker.
To keep its cost down, however, the next Bolt will be fitted with new Lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries which GM will buy from an external supplier, limiting its capital expense.
Despite this, the new Bolt will likely cost more than its current US base price of $27,495, but less than the $35,000 US base price of the Equinox EV.
Since the assembly plant where it is currently manufactured won’t be available anymore, there are rumours that the next Bolt will be produced in Fairfax, Kansas, since this GM factory is set to receive a $391 million investment in order to prepare for the launch of a still unknown electric model.
Source: Automotive News
