Goodbye Chevy Bolt: An Owner Laments The End For A Unique And Possibly Future Classic EV

We came to own Ruby, our Chevrolet Bolt EV (that’s it in the photo above), sort of by chance. It was the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we had been hit hard on several fronts early on: My partner operated a medical practice and was infected immediately in March of 2020 during the first and perhaps most virulent wave. She became seriously ill and was forced to close her practice while she slowly recovered. There were no vaccines or treatments at that terrible time. Her symptoms, including a lingering viscous cough among other odd maladies, went on for months. Some still crop up.

Eventually, and thankfully, she did recover for the most part, and also landed an exciting new job, so the car shopping began, somewhat as a joke, but also as a sort of recovery celebration and pushback against the dark days the country was enduring. We’re tech-forward and try to be environmentally responsible, so we focused on electric cars and hybrids, even though I own a Chevrolet Silverado powered by a thirsty V8 turbodiesel. Mostly, it sits while I ride e-bikes or motorcycles to get around.

While we worked from our separate home offices, text messages with links to cars would pop up on my screen as she scoured the internet. We had ridden often in a friend’s Tesla Model S and she liked the electric car experience and the thought of not buying gas (or just a lot less of it), but she was not a fan of Mr. Musk. She found a crimson 2020 Chevy Bolt EV in top-tier Premier trim that looked intriguing. It was a lease return with only a few thousand miles on it and it was still under the Chevy battery recall, so the price was quite good. We went to the dealer, drove it and a few other EVs, but we were very impressed with the fun and funky little Bolt EV, so we pulled the trigger. We have never regretted it.

I first rode in a Chevy Bolt EV back in early 2016 when it was still in late prototype stage. I attended CES with another publication and took a spin on a closed course Chevy had set up. The interior was still incomplete but we were impressed enough to give it the Best of CES award that year. I said to my colleagues then that down the line, the Bolt would be viewed as an important turning point in the transition to electric cars, at least for GM, and so far, that seems prescient.

Back in 2013, I also had the chance to drive the Bolt’s predecessor, the small-batch Chevy Spark EV (above), which was only sold in Oregon, California and few other places. For whatever reason (all good ones to me), Chevy decided to give the little Spark EV hockey puck a stonking 400 pound-feet of torque from their purpose-built electric motor, which made it capable of scorching unsuspecting Mustangs and Camaros off the line. To say it was fun to drive is an understatement.

It was a harbinger of things to come as it was also the early days of the EV transition for legacy automakers, who were suddenly trembling in their boots as buyers (and investors) queued up for the suddenly ascendent Tesla, and the Model S began eating “performance cars” for lunch across pretty much every metric. Change was in the air, and Chevy’s rapid response was the clean-sheet Bolt EV, which was well down on performance compared to a Tesla, but was also much more affordable while still having long range, good comfort and unexpectedly good performance numbers, especially compared to gas-powered econoboxes. And it was… just different enough to stand out.

To be honest, I cringed when Chevrolet decided to call this car the “Bolt,” as the name sort of landed with the same elegance as “Edsel.” Why not just call it the Volt EV, since it was kind of the natural progression of Chevy’s popular and effective plug-in hybrid? Word is they chose the name to differentiate it on dealership floors from the Volt (right), which is understandable but in my opinion just made things more confusing. Oh well, Bolt EV it is, but our little red e-sled just goes by Ruby.

I understand Chevrolet’s likely reasons for pulling the Bolt’s plug, even if I disagree with those reasons. It’s not based on Chevy’s umbrella EV “Ultium” architecture from which most all future GM EVs will spring forth, and the whole battery fire and recall thing cast a pall over the car, good as it is.

And it is a very good car. With 266 pound feet of torque and 200 horsepower in such a small package, it’s unexpectedly (and addictively) fast off the line although top speed is electronically limited to 93 mph. I think I got it going that fast maybe one time. It’s flat fun to drive, handles well as stock but also responds well to suspension and tire upgrades. While it is small, it’s also heavy at 3,500 pounds, so it has a sort of oddly damped big-car driving feel. But when it comes time to park it, the snub nose and short 102-inch wheelbase let you slip into some tight parking spots no problemo.

Our Premiere trim features heated leather seats, swank wheels, that lovely red hue, video rear view mirror, a full sensor package, 360-degree cameras and a delicious Bose stereo with stock subwoofer that’s a joy to listen to. The central touch screen is reasonably large and is flanked by actual buttons that are logically laid out. It seats four adults in genuine comfort, or five if everyone is friendly. Lay the back seats down and it will haul a lot of stuff. It’s supremely quiet to drive and hugely economical. We charge it up at night at home when power is cheapest and since we don’t drive much anyway, our electrical bill has barely increased. And, best of all, we rarely buy gas anymore. I get some for my truck, motorcycles and Vespa on occasion, but we’ve really noticed the huge drop in fuel costs from not having to fill up our reasonably efficient Subaru to cover all those local trips – the majority of our and most people’s driving duties – we now do in the Bolt EV. Winner!

We’ve even gone on several longer tips in Ruby, which has a stated range of 259 miles on a charge – perhaps the first actual long-range legacy automaker EVs. Traversing the Cascade mountain range on the way to central Oregon’s high desert, we made one charging stop while getting lunch. On the way home, after climbing the flanks of Mt. Hood on Highway 26, the Bolt ran in regeneration mode the whole way back down, adding tens of miles of range that allowed us to make it home without charging. Keep in mind that in most gas-powered cars, you’re still burning fuel while driving downhill. Not so in an EV, which is instead collecting free energy from mass, motion and gravity. And one-pedal driving? We love it.

The Bolt EV even has a few neat EV tricks. In one-pedal mode, the car will essentially sit in one position on an incline, no brake pressure needed. A large button on the back of the left side of the steering wheel activates increased regenerative braking on demand; I don’t think we’ll ever need to buy brake pads for it. And it has a clever trick when stopping while in regenerative mode: there’s no slight “kick back” when the car comes to a stop like there is in every car since cars were invented. Instead, Chevrolet has apparently implemented some sort of e-braking algorithm that continues to slow the Bolt until it’s fully stopped, but there’s no little bounce when it “stops.” I’ve tried to duplicate this with my own braking skills without success. It’s kinda weird and I love demonstrating it to people as a small token of what’s possible when computers instead of humans control a vehicle. Eventually, this little feature will be commonplace in EVs, but I love that the little Bolt EV already does it. And that little line of electro-luminescent blue that runs across the dash (photo below)? It’s a great little splash of EV sci-fi style. Well done, GM.

I get why the Bolt EV is being discontinued. It was a bridge of sorts for GM’s serious entry into the BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) space, a placeholder while they figured out the finer details of a quickly approaching electric future. Ultium was still being developed and in 2015, I’m sure GM (and everyone else) was hot to get something, anything to market to counter the Tesla onslaught. The fact that it turned out so good is a credit to GM’s EV team, and while many owners might feel nostalgia for a nameplate, I’m fine with GM retiring the “Bolt” name as well. Bring back the Volt as both an EV and 90-mile EV range PHEV, and bring it back in a big, affordable, Tesla-battling way.

Will the little EV-That-Could Bolt ever be a collectible car? Likely not in the way supercars and such are, but perhaps in the way people preserve Volvo P1800s, old Minis and such, and owners groups are filling up. Considering how much a 1997 Acura Integra Type R recently went for at auction, who knows? We’re probably going to hold onto our fast, fun and unique Ruby red Bolt EV long enough to find out.