GM to discontinue Chevy Bolt EV in late 2023

General Motors will discontinue the Chevrolet Bolt at the end of this year as it focuses on its new generation of electric vehicles, CEO Mary Barra said Tuesday.

The automaker plans to build electric versions of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra at the Bolt plant in Orion Township, Mich., about 65 kilometres north of Detroit. Employment at the plant will triple in 2024, when it reopens after a $4 billion overhaul (all figures in USD) Barra said on GM's first-quarter earnings call.

The Bolt, introduced in 2016, as GM’s first mass-market EV, uses the company’s previous-generation battery technology. The Silverado, Sierra and other upcoming EVs are built on the Ultium battery platform that allows for greater range and power.

“It's just a natural progression, natural next step for us,” Chevrolet CMO Steve Majoros told sibling publication Automotive News.

“We’re joining the Ultium party. Bolt has been a phenomenal product for us, no doubt. It's done great things for Chevy, for GM, dealers, customers.”

GM said the 2023 model year will be the last, and dealers will be able to order Bolts through the summer.

“It's not about replacement volume, especially early on,” Majoros said. “Bolt has been a conquest machine for us. Early on, it was conquesting north of 85 per cent, which means these were all brand-new people to Chevrolet and what you find in EVs, there's a tremendous amount of brand loyalty, but it's really a propulsion decision. And so if we can bring people in based on the propulsion proposition that they're looking for, we can do it with a brand that they're familiar with, with brand names they’re familiar with, that works well for us.

GM on Tuesday said it has formed a joint venture with Samsung SDI to build a $3 billion battery plant in the U.S. that will open in 2026. The company didn't identify the location of the plant, which would be GM's fourth Ultium plant in the United States.

GM has sold more than 161,000 Bolts in the United States. The automaker has sold more than 26,000 Bolts in Canada. The nameplate began as a hatchback and expanded to include a larger crossover called the Bolt EUV in 2021. Analysts have been expecting the vehicles to eventually make way for newer EVs.

"The size of the Bolt itself isn't a popular size for the American consumer. It's a little too small," Sam Fiorani, vice president of U.S.-based global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, told Automotive News last year. "And with advances in battery technology and motor technology, they're getting more mileage out of a charge and making the vehicles bigger. So the pricing and the battery range can move up a step and basically replace the Bolt with a smaller version of the Equinox."

GM plans to start making the Silverado EV this year at the Detroit plant it calls Factory Zero. Shifting the Orion plant to Silverados and Sierras from Bolts will allow the company to make as many as 600,000 electric pickups annually.

The Bolt's sales and image were hampered by a 2021 recall linked to battery fires. GM cut Bolt prices by about $6,000 last year in preparation for the 2023 launch of the Chevy Equinox EV, which will use Ultium batteries and have a starting price of about $30,000. That's less than the Bolt cost before the price cut.

GM Canada Vice-president Sales, Service and Marketing Sandor Piszar on April 21, told the Automotive News Canada Podcast the electrified version of the Equinox will cost about $35,000 in Canada.