The price seems right, the range looks good, and the body? Well, we’ve seen far more ungainly vehicles achieve success in the past. The Chevrolet Menlo, the bowtie brand’s first EV in China, went on sale in the troubled nation last week with both pros and cons in its corner.
For American viewers who can only look at the Bolt and wish it looked like this, there’s clearly design hope for a U.S.-bound model.
The Menlo shares its China-only SAIC-GM platform with the Buick Velite 6, with more inches placed between the axles then the Chevy Bolt and its overseas derivatives. Starting price is a rock-bottom (for U.S. buyers) $22,600, give or take a few bucks depending on up-to-the-minute exchange rates. Range amounts to 410 km (255 miles) on the optimistic New European Driving Cycle.
General Motors is in it to win in China’s low-priced “new energy vehicle” game — a market with no shortage of similarly low-cost competition.
The extra cargo capacity over domestic EV city cars and sedan contenders, plus the attributes mentioned above, give the Menlo a decent shot at capturing buyers. Also in its favor are a government incentive reduction that’s now been put on hold. The subsidy cut was to go into effect on July 1st, but last year’s cratering of the Chinese new car market, which is biased in favor of EVs, led the one-party state to hold off on further reductions.
The biggest threat to near-term Menlo sales is, obviously, the ongoing coronavirus epidemic. Last week, the Chinese government announced an easing of travel restrictions out of fear of further economic damage, though restrictions ramped up in the already locked-down Hubei province, home to much of the country’s manufacturing base, in addition to roughly 60 million residents.
The first half of February saw new car sales drop 92 percent, the result of strict quarantine measures. In January, sales of all new vehicles fell 43 percent, with battery electric vehicles down 68 percent, year over year.
Even before the viral outbreak, China’s GDP was expected to drop in 2020 — a repeat of 2019. However, the Menlo’s low purchase price places it within range of a large swath of Chinese society, and sales figures from the supposedly disastrous 2019 reveal buoyancy in the EV market, despite the subsidy slashing. While new energy vehicles fell over 3 percent last year, the drop had its genesis in the public’s sudden U-turn on plug-in hybrids. Actual electric vehicles enjoyed growth of 43 percent.
Hosting design traits seen on the upcoming U.S.-market Chevrolet Trailblazer, the Menlo gives us a good idea of what a new domestic Chevy crossover EV could look like. GM plans to build the Bolt EUV at its Orion Township, Michigan assembly plant, with a launch occurring late this year.
[Images: General Motors]
It still looks dorky as all hell as we’ve come to expect EVs, yet it doesn’t scream EV, so I guess the design is somewhat of a win?
Judging by the opening picture, i was ready to call this the best looking CUV GM makes, save for that stupid plastic cladding creeping up the door for a faux-athletic stance. But then i saw the back end.. It’s like they’re trying to compete with the Toyota ch-r for bad over-styling.
$22,600 and 255 miles? Shoot, I’ll take one!
EPA range would be more like 215 miles – still pretty good.
Those numbers caught my eye as well. Doesn’t this make the Bolt look a little absurd?
To be fair, I noticed a quote in the Electrek article stating that the quoted price of $22,600 is “after national subsidies for new energy vehicles.” A few minutes of research indicates that the Chinese federal subsidy is around $7,000. So the real base price, apples to apples, would be about $29,999 vs the Bolt’s $36,620.
That’s still a significant difference, but given the lower battery capacity, it seems within the realm of reason.
@sppp: GM has been putting about $10K of cash on the hood for the Bolt so it’s been selling in the mid to upper 20’s recently.
Add another $10 – $15 k by the time it gets here or should I say is made here!
“$22,600 and 255 miles? Shoot, I’ll take one!”
It comes with the burden of Chinese citizenship attached.
Oddly, GM pays people and calls them designers or stylists. I’m not sure that these fools are any better than a couple of chimps paid with bananas. Certainly this thing from China is not a shining example of beauty or talent. It looks like someone else’s car but I can’t pin the tail on any particular donkey.
I’m a little surprised to read so much criticism about the way it looks. I think it’s a fairly handsome crossover, particularly the front clip. Sure beats the current giant-grill styling of their North American market crossovers. I mean, the back half is kinda busy-looking, but I’ve seen worse.
I especially like the Thomas Edison reference in the name. Wonder if that’s supposed to be a thinly veiled dig at Tesla…
I’m not in the market for crossovers but it just looks extremely feminine, which I guess is great for the crowd they’re trying to attract but I can’t see past it.
Not that giant grille is attractive, just outside of FCA, Porsche, and maybe Mercedes – the whole segment is full of bleh.
I agree. I think it’s pretty sharp.
Look out Tesla, the old guard is slowly coming around.
Watch how badly Tesla misses their Q1 numbers, add on the Solar City debt, can’t wait to see how they spin this. Model Y will decimate Model 3 sales (even though you can only fit a couple of footballs in the 3rd row). Will be quite amusing. Semi, Roadster, Cybertruck, keep dreaming.
Isn’t everyone going to miss Q1 (and likely Q2) of 2020? China’s manufacturing is shut down practically. 90%+ declines for everyone counting on China’s billion customers is bad news for all. And even if someone isn’t a player in China, they certainly will feel bottlenecks in their supply chains.
civicjohn,
Wait, which one is the Tesla killer?
– The China-market-only Menlo?
– Or the sold-by-Tesla Model Y?
Side note – true decimation is precisely 10% and all happens on your side: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army)
@civicjohn:
Until the old guard builds their own Gigafactories, they present no threat to Tesla.
As for the Model Y, Tesla has already said they think it will far outsell the Model 3, so your prediction is not news to them.
You guys are a hoot. Between the GM haters (I am one as I watched my stock and bonds get wiped away) and the Tesla fanboys, it’s quite an amusing thread. So in the interest of saving space, I’ll combine my responses to 1 for the 3 above.
1. SlowMyke, I had absolutely no idea there was a slowdown in the global economy, thanks for pointing that out!
2. ToolGuy, man, that’s one heck of a question. Did you happen to forget that there might be a couple of other state-owned EV manufacturers in China, or are you proposing that it’s GM vs. Tesla in China? And while I can utilize your wisdom, please explain why China is so wide open to Model Y when they don’t even make them there?
3. SCE, you seem to think that Gigafactories are something akin to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Last I checked, ole Willie wasn’t using any tents. What is the magic that you see? Might I also insert that battery companies are also working on large scale factories, maybe they should call them MAGAfactories.
But I enjoy reading your comments!
I’m sorry, I thought you were indicating that Tesla’s U.S. sales would suffer when Chevrolet introduced the Menlo in China. And that Tesla would give up in the U.S. market after selling a large number of Model Y’s in the U.S. market. (You referred to Q1 of 2020, so I was focused on U.S.)
Pray tell, which group do you put me in? And while I’ve said nothing of a global economic slow down, you can’t exactly sell cars you can’t produce. I’m pretty sure you can find plenty of news stories about how the corona virus is affecting the auto industry.
As per your responses to the other comments – what a bunch of nonsense. You brought up Tesla saying that the “old guard” is coming around with this Menlo model and that Tesla is going to eat it’s own lunch with the model y. ToolGuy pointed out that a single market GM product entering a severely depressed Chinese market isn’t likely to affect a Tesla’s business in a global section of the industry that GM doesn’t otherwise compete (very well) in.
As per the gigafactory (i don’t even know where you’re going with the trump-troll, just an easy rhyme?) SCEtoAUX is pointing out that batteries are an extreme bottleneck for the production of electric vehicles. Sure, you can contract with other corporations to supply your batteries, but there’s a reason most large scale manufacturers don’t outsource the engines of their conventional vehicles either. Some components make sense to control in the production of a vehicle; in BEV’s it’s a better bet to control your batteries right now. There’s already reports of production limits for other BEV competitors due to battery supply. So back to my original point, you can’t sell what your can’t produce.
Your quips aren’t really clever, how about some substance?
So, where to deconstruct. First, I didn’t even attempt to put you in a group, Frankly, I don’t care. I certainly understand that the Coronavirus is affecting global vehicle manufacturing. Agree with your point there. I was under the impression that Model 3 sales are production-constrained. Did I miss the memo?
Next, last I checked, GM is by no means accelerating their China investment. As much as I dislike GM, BAIC, BYD, JAC, and others are amping up their game, and if I’m not mistaken, the government owns a part of each one.
Yeah, you busted me on the MAGAfactory, watching the debate, and it is a joke that I will probably be reminded of! But come on man, Tesla hasn’t even built out the battery capacity at the Reno “GIGAFACTORY”. Do a little bit of checking on the utilization of the NY “GIGAFACTORY”, that’s one stellar operation. Has the thought of battery manufacturers building large factories occurred to you?
Funny how you didn’t bring up any retorts about the debt.
“Your quips aren’t really clever, how about some substance?”
Indeed.
@civicjohn
Your goal posts are all over the place. You mention the old guard in reference to GM, but when someone questions it, you instead refer to Chinese makes? Since when is China “the old guard”? Last i checked, Chinese makes compete in China and not many other places credibly. I’m sure Tesla needs to be wary but i don’t think China’s current offerings are out competing Tesla at the moment. Certainly not in Q1 2020 as you singled out.
I don’t think the model 3 has anywhere near the production constraints it did at the start. In Q4 2019 tesla made over 100k vehicles. I think that’s all 3 models, but the model 3 makes up the lion’s share. That seems pretty decent for the a strictly EV producer given the market demand for such vehicles.
As for the gigafactories, tesla doesn’t need to be operating them at capacity yet. No one else has the capability to produce as many EV’s as Tesla does without relying on a small handful of other corporations. As i said before, it’s a bottleneck and Tesla is the only one in control of their own supply. When governments around the world are manipulating demand, it’s better to not have to hope you can contract with a separate battery producer.
I didn’t address the debt in my second post just as i didn’t in my first. If something is going to bring down Tesla besides Musk being utterly bizarre and egotistical, it’ll be debt. I don’t disagree with that so i didn’t bother with it.
And back to the anti GM/Tesla thing – you start your comment out with it and then immediately address three people. That’s kinda how one implies they are taking to people in those groups.
You just kinda knew that cheap labor was going to blow up in U.S. corporate faces. Corona was rather unpredictable, of course, but there are some reports that their evil gov’t created the virus and, of course, their oppressive one-party government likely let it get much worse than it might have in a country which had freer communication and greater respect for human rights. There’s about to be a painful adjustment period. Hopefully we learn from it and scale back Chinese exploit…I mean, investment.
It’s a bit busy out back with some standard predenting, otherwise boring and inoffensive.
That said, meh.
Hey GM, I’ll tell you what. Bring this EV to Lake Orion plant, add the Bolt’s powertrain with enhanced 300 mile range, slap some new badges and offer it as the 2nd gen Bolt starting from $30K. It’ll sell like pancakes.
I suspect if this had been available last year we would have bought it instead of the Bolt. Can’t always predict my wife’s preferences but the styling seems right up her alley.
MMMMM Chinese made Toyota goodness.
A Chevy full of Chinesium – couldn’t be any worse than a Malibu, right?
virus is a cover for 5G