Electric vehicle customers who want to get into a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt before anyone gets their hands on a Tesla Model 3 could be in for a wait, according to a report.
CleanTechnica claims that substantial deliveries of the 200-plus-mile Bolt won’t take place until January, with pre-orders moved from August to November of this year.
The report’s author spoke with GM dealer staff in southern California in the hopes of ordering a Bolt, but was told to come back in November to place a pre-order. Deliveries, he was told, will be pushed back from October 2016 (when the Bolt is expected to start production) to late January 2017.
Other would-be customers reported that their dealers are also not accepting pre-orders, the report states.
The compact EV, designed for roominess and expected to cost $30,000 after government incentives, is billed as the first affordable electric vehicle with a practical range. GM has always claimed that deliveries will take place before the end of 2016 — a year earlier than the Model 3. That’s still the automaker’s claim, but it comes with an asterisk.
Following the CleanTechnica report, GM restated that “limited deliveries will occur by the end of 2016,” which seems to imply that regular customers might not see the model before New Year’s Eve. The automaker has a partnership with ride-hailing service Lyft, so that company (or other fleet customers) could see the first Bolts that roll off the Orion Assembly line in Michigan.
[Image: General Motors]
Launch delays are frustrating, for all parties ,but not the end of the world… Defective vehicles making their way to the consumer? Absolutely , not acceptable !
*Unless it’s VW.
The VW Diesels were not faulty, they were working as designed.
The design may have been faulty, but not the car.
An intentional fault counts as defective in my book. :)
I’d say the design was brilliant, in the same way that the plot to rip off three casinos in “Ocean’s Eleven” was brilliant.
Illegal, but brilliant.
He he. A brilliant plan indeed. But maybe the parallel should be with The Italian Job, they end up hanging off a precipice.
Is this really meant to compete with the Tesla 3? I feel like they might be aiming a little high there, as Tesla has the magic glitter of branding on it – similar to Apple.
Might’ve been wiser to aim straight at the side of USS C-Max.
They sell plenty of Android devices. Not everyone craves branding.
We lumpen proletariat have figured out that EV is better but await a practical, roomy, mid-priced vehicle to buy-in. Hence, Bolt.
Maybe.
Hmm, it just feels like much of the appeal of the Tesla is not in fact the electrical nature, but rather the styling, branding, and being in “the club.”
Yeah, but silly sh1ts with plenty of coin will always be a minority. GM knows this.
You mean Trickle Down doesn’t work?
When I think of the trickles with which I’ve been familiar, hope to God it doesn’t.
LOL
Here’s how trickle down works.
I pee down your back and tell you its raining.
This is like R. Kelly economics 101!
Golden showers…where’s BTSR?
We can close down the Internet for the rest of the day. Corey won.
Of course. It’s membership to the club that the yuppies crave. The club of conspicuous conservation. And the Tesla? It’s their Green card! Their meetings are silent affairs, dark rituals conducted around a CHAdeMO outlet in the dead of non-peak night.
The Bolt doesn’t pass muster. A Bolt rolls by and there are no appreciative nods, no sideways glances to see who’s driving it. It provides no access, no membership, it is of no party. It is the predictable, expected, inevitable output of a company as mainstream as GM. Designed for people who just need a car. It is just a car.
And to some that is its charm.
Many silly secular priesthoods have arisen among the ruins of organized religion. You get that. I like you.
Just like the Masons!
Oh wait, bad example.
The Church of the Subgenius – Prophet J.R. “Bob” Dobbs
In much the same way that Porsche’s outlandish profits work (although they are targeting the same guys/money sending different signals). Of course if you are schooling Alfred P. Sloan’s old company on branding, you really know how it works.
And not everyone who buys an iPhone does it for branding. Some people appreciate both design and, you know, their e-devices working together without fiddling.
I hope the Bolt is a success so we get vastly more EVs on the roads. I think for me personally it won’t have the performance or ergonomics I’m looking for, but I’m prepared to be surprised on that front.
This. After 2 Nexus devices I went iPhone SE and couldn’t be happier. It just works…Always…And with my Ford Sync…and the battery lasts all day. I like the Bolt. I’ll probably soon buy an electric, though it will be a used leaf as a runabout for my soon to be driving age son provided he keeps up his end of the bargain at school.
But yeah, my phone is a tool and I don’t want to fiddle with it anymore. I could care less about some Apple cult. Honestly at 300 bucks out the door with my wife’s old iPhone 5 as a trade in the SE is a pretty screaming bargain for a phone if you prefer a small phone. As my last device was a Nexus 6 with a Nexus 5 and a Sony Google Play Edition Z-Ultra with 6.4 inches of screen I was ready for something that fit in my pocket again. Yes the stock Android phones are the only ones I like. I can use motorola with their lightweight skins but Samsung and TouchWiz are the devil. BTW the iPhone 4S is still receiving updates. Show me any Android device from 2011 still getting regular updates. It ain’t just the fruit on the back and not all Android users are getting stellar bargains. My Nexus 6 was right up there with the iPhone of the era price wise. Price a note 7 and let me know how screaming a deal you got.
This is only a delay of ‘substantial deliveries’. The Bolt will still be way ahead of the Model 3.
Local Chevy store doesn’t yet know when they’ll get one in the showroom.
But they’ll let me know!
This will bomb hard in the US, but I bet it will do well in Canada.
Don’t make me go all Vulpine here. We’ll just have to wait & see.
A lot of geezers like me would love to have a silent, dripless EV but not with the ergonomics of a bobsled. And those of us with short commutes in cold weather states will be reassured by the 200 mile range. That would permit plenty of heat & defrost for my 14 mile round trip.
Kenmore (2-door electric) is fascinated by a 5-door electric…
hmmm…..
(I can’t wait to check one out myself)
I just hope it’s quieter than I am.
Need to see the doc about my cap tube gurgling.
Hope it’s not because your compressor has A-Fib…
Oh, I think it will fall somewhere in-between. Not the sales success that Chevy is hoping for but nowhere near the sales flop you’re predicting. Kind of like the Volt.
I currently lease a Spark EV. Its lease is up in a couple of years. By that time Bolts will be plentiful, they will have worked out all (most) of the bugs and I’ll be able to walk into sweet lease deal.
I am still waiting to see “sweet lease deals” on the Volt and it has been around for a while now….
$430/m for a 36 month lease at 5.9%??? nothing screaming a deal there….
Just yesterday I passed a car hauler with some new Bolts on it, so they are being built…
I’ve seen one driving around San Francisco highways, so I thought they had started shipping already. Must have been a prerelease unit.
Preproduction models are in the wild per a few websites. Should be with journo’s shortly. Several have been seen in the greater Detroit area.
OK we’re expanding our ongoing question/contest:
Who makes the first retail delivery?
Chevy Bolt
Tesla 3
Elio
Mitsu PHEV
Bolt
Seconded. Tesla 3 will beat the Elio though IMHO. Then again I think a manned mission to Jupiter will come to fruition prior to the Elio.
Bolt