General Motors Co. said Tuesday it will end production of its Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle later this year as its zero-emissions production shifts to trucks and SUVs built on a new battery platform.
“We’ve come so far that it’s now time to plan for the end of Chevrolet Bolt EV and EU production, which will happen at the very end of the year,” the GM CEO said Tuesday. , Mary Barra, to investors.
The largest U.S. automaker sold 38,120 Bolt electric vehicles in 2022, up from 24,828 in 2011, and 19,700 in the first three months of the year. The Bolt, GM’s first consumer electric vehicle, still accounts for more than 90% of all GM electric vehicle sales in the United States.
The Bolt was preceded by the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid that GM ended production in 2019. By the end of the 1990s, GM built and leased around 1,100 EV1 cars.
The Bolt, which starts at US$26,500 and qualifies for a US$7,500 federal tax credit, has been repeatedly touted by the Biden administration as an example of an affordable electric vehicle.
Development of production of electric trucks and SUVs
In January 2022, GM announced that it would invest US$4 billion in its Orion Township assembly plant which builds the Bolt to produce the Chevrolet Silverado EV and electric GMC Sierra using its Ultium EV platform from new generation.
GM said its Detroit-Hamtramck and Orion plants will be able to 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 nearly triple.
GM plans to build 400,000 electric vehicles in North America from 2022 to mid-2024 and increase capacity to one million units per year in North America in 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 converting its facilities in Canada to make electric vehicles, with the CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ont., set to start making electric delivery vans and a propulsion plant in St. Catharines that will pivot also to manufacture electric motors.
In August 2021, GM announced a $2 billion recall campaign which it expanded to cover all 140,000 Bolt vehicles it had produced due to battery fire hazards. The recall prompted GM to halt Bolt production and sales for over six months.