Long considdered a stalwarth in the “affordable” EV market, the Bolt EV is a very unique EV. At this price point, 43k CAD (source), it offers loads of range, a roomy interior and decent charging performance. It was never particularly inspiring, but it got the job done at a very sensible price point. It launched to much fan-fare in 2016, got cancelled in 2023, re-launched in 2025 and apparently cancelled yet again in 2026. Confused yet? Well lets dive in and discuss.
The Chevy bolt has been a fixture on our used EV list since the very beginning. And for good reason, it is an attractive combination of range, roomy interior, and aceptable technology at a very sensible price-point. Until the Tesla Model 3 came along in 2018, there was really nothing like it on the market.
There were some setbacks, most notably perhaps a series of battery fires in 2021-2022, which in the end, led GM to replace a number of battery packs in early Chevy Bolts (source). But there were also some wins, the decission to add a EUV variant proved particularly popular (source). The Bolt never sold particularly well, sales figures were reported in the tens of thousands of units per year, reaching perhaps 50k units in 2023 (source). This compared with hundreds of thousands units per year for the Tesla Model 3 (source), and 20-30k units for the Cadilac Lyriq (source).
In the end, I suspect GM executives figured they might score some political points with the Trump administration by cancelling the Chevy Bolt again. Perhaps the thinking went, those political points were worth more than what surely must be an expensive on again off again production effort. Keep in mind that Toyota took decades to turn a profit on the Toyota Prius (source), in fact some automotive researchers suggested back in 2017 that the Bolt should be profitable for GM in 2025 (source).
Politicians come and go, President Obama was the last US president to serve two consecutive terms from 2008-2016, and it seems likely that the Democrats will find their way into at least some of Washington’s halls of power in the mid-term electrions later this year, hence whatever political points GM gained by cancelling the Bolt likely have a short shelf life.
If for nothing else, none of the “Detroit big three” have any EVs on offer for less than 45k CAD, it might become very difficult for politicians to keep cheap Chinese EVs tarrifed out of the US given that one must rely on imports to satisfy whatever demand there might be, and it seems.
There are also some upstarts on the horizon, take slate for example (source). Suppose GM were to get into financial trouble, similar to what happened in 2009 (source), some might reason that GM should fail because they really messed up the EV transition, kinda ironic as GM put an EV on the road way back in 1995, long before anyone else (source).
Electric car adventures 