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Chevrolet Bolt EV Is the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year
- mark_l_watson 10y agoMy wife drives a "nicer" car but I am really happy with my old 1998 Toyota Corolla: stick shift, nothing has ever gone wrong with it, and it gets incredible gas mileage. I occasionally get it detailed and worked over by a local guy, a real artist, who builds large car models from scratch - he keeps my car looking good. That said, I am tempted to trade it in for a Bolt EV. If I add more solar panels to our roof, I can try for a zero carbon footprint (except for the car manufacture and maintenance).
- tener 10y agoThis largely reads as a paid ad. There are plenty of numbers comparing old and new models, yet very few when they compare to Tesla. It would be interesting to read a more neutral comparison though.
- reitzensteinm 10y agoIf they heavily compared it with the Tesla, it would be a sign that the technology isn't ready for mainstream adoption. Only enthusiasts set on buying an EV will sit down and compare the two given the 2x price difference. For most, the purchasing decision will be squarely against petrol vehicles in the same class.
- forgetsusername 10y ago>yet very few when they compare to Tesla What Tesla? The one that costs twice as much? Or the one that doesn't exist yet? This is beside the point that Tesla is mentioned numerous times in the article.
- johnm1019 10y agoWhile I agree the tone of the article is a paid ad, the reason you can't compare it to a model 3 is because the model 3 doesn't exist yet. Comparing it to a Model S is ok in the sense that you _can_ compare a Cessna 172 to a Learjet, but why? Different markets, different price points.
- projektfu 10y agoIt's more like comparing economy class with business class.
- Roritharr 10y agoI wonder where the top Speed Limit comes from, is it battery cooling or artificial limiting to proclaim a better Range? In Germany that number raised a few eyebrows.
- Already__Taken 10y agoI would assume it's to simplify the gearing.
- ferongr 10y agoMost electric cars lack a variable-ratio transmission. At some point and you only have the final drive to reduce the speed of the electric motor. The final drive has to strike a balance between torque for negotiating inclines and top speed, as the electric motor cannot rev to infinity, neither can the power systems handle infinite power though them. An electric car with a two-ratio gearbox would be ideal for both taking off from a standstill and top speed.
- Roritharr 10y agoWhat does the Model S use then?
- ferongr 10y agoA way more powerful motor and power electronics that allow for a "taller" (smaller reduction ratio) final drive.
- ahakki 10y agoIIRC the AWD versions (recognizable by a 'D' at the end of the model name, as in P90D) use 2 motors, one for the front and one for the rear. These two motors have different gear ratios, so one is more opimized for torque and the other for high speed. The rear wheel drive versions have a single ratio which has to strike a balance between speed and torque. This is also the reason that the AWD versions are faster than the RWD even though they are heavier due to the additional motors.
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- vinay427 10y agoI'd like to take a moment to point out, as was done in the article, that receiving this award is further validation that electric cars are becoming mainstream. We can compare it to an upcoming competitor (the Model 3) but at the end of the day, they're vying for positions on the same team. That being said, a lot of this felt like an advertisement as another poster mentioned. One thing I would like to see is better charger standardisation now that Tesla has its own apparebtly faster but non-standard alternative.
- rubidium 10y agoIt's like the rise of California wineries. If someone wins they all win.
- jgalt212 10y agoExcept for the fact that TSLA stock price trades as if it will dominate all the markets it operates in.
- alex_duf 10y agoYes, the EV industry needs to come up with a standard as quickly as possible now that it's pretty sure EV are here for a while.
- projektfu 10y agoThere are standards and, like networking standards, they improve over time. Tesla has a nonstandard approach mostly because they are offering free electricity. There's no real reason why an L3 charging station couldn't offer both connections if Tesla would permit it.
- WhitneyLand 10y agoCompatible chargers would be great, but you have the same old problems of a standards war. Could mathematical tools for fair division help? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_cake-cutting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_cake-cutting For example it could be used to decide who pays what to buy into the standard, who helps build out the network etc. Or they could ask Dolby Labs or Sony for help if they really want to lean how to screw up a standards war so everyone loses for years on end.
- avar 10y agoThe article only briefly touches on this, but LG Korea is a huge part of this. They make the motor, battery & drivetrain, basically everything that makes this car an electric car. Chevrolet is just manufacturing the parts that would be mostly identical to any of their other cars. Rather than Tesla being worried about Chevrolet, I think they'd be more worried about the likes of LG & Samsung in the longer term.
- archildress 10y agoThis is a great point. Tesla is, to me, fundamentally a battery company.
- cthulhujr 10y agoIt's not just you. They're pretty open about the fact that they're a battery company.
- agumonkey 10y agoThe spin is shifting, they started as a car company with socio-ecological conscience and now moving onto green energy of all forms.
- Klathmon 10y agoTo me, Tesla feels like a "marketing" company. And I don't mean that in a bad way. Yes, their battery tech is improving, and they make pretty damn good cars, but most of all Tesla is getting people excited for electric cars. Before they came around, electric cars were shitty ecoboxes that were worse in just about every way to an ICE car. They were ugly, had no range, were missing features, expensive, slow charging, etc... There were exceptions, but for the most part this was what the average person believed. And while you could argue that much of this is still true with Teslas when compared to other luxury brands at the same price point, Tesla has gotten people interested. They've gotten people excited for electric cars. They've made people want them even though they might be worse on paper. And that's a big deal. They are not only making a great product, but they are pushing their competitors to step up their game and really focus on their electric offerings.
- madengr 10y agoI wonder if taking pre-orders for the model 3 was a way for Tesla to lock up orders in anticipation of competition?
- mikkael 10y agoSurely a nice car. But I wonder where all this electrical power for all those electrical cars in the future will come from? Probably from nuclear power plants with their still unresolved nuclear waste problematics - not even speaking about nuclear accidents. From this point of view I have some doubts that mass adoption of affordable electrical cars will be beneficial for the environment...
- garbot 10y agoNot entirely sure if these stats are up to date, but the US is still using fossil fuels for the majority of its energy. http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=us_energy_home http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=us_energy_...
- mikkael 10y agoThanks. And yes, currently we can still burn fossil fuels to satisfy our hunger for energy but I was projecting into the future. My thinking goes like this: Let's define the amount of current electrical power used for non-automotive purposes as E0(2016). Currently there is only a negligible amount of electrical cars, so the amount of energy used for automotive purposes Ea(2016) will be comparatively close to 0. I think in a (maybe not so) distant future time point t where electrical cars have mass adoption (just think of a scenario where all cars on the street are electrical) we will in addition to non-automotive energy E0(t) need electrical power for automotive purposes Ea(t) for every car on the street. And Ea(t) >> Ea(2016) will be huge. Where will such a huge amount of electrical power come from if not from nuclear power plants with all their problems? Other points to consider: 1. At some point in the future fossil fuels will run out - so no fossil fuel cars and no fossil fuel power plants any more. So E0(t) will also not come from fossil fuels anymore. As a sidenote on today's situation: I don't see a big difference for the environment whether a car burns the fossil fuel or a electrical car uses energy created by power plants that burn fossil fuels... 2. We have a growing earth population which will even increase the amount of energy consumed for non-automotive purposes in the future, so E0(t) > E0(2016). 3. Increased demand for electrical energy together with decreased amount of energy providers (fossil fuel power plants will be no more) will increase energy prices in the future.
- 35bge57dtjku 10y agoA car that would leave you with about a $600/month payment is 'for the masses'?
- GirlsCanCode 10y agoJust write a check for the whole thing! No car payment.
- pmarreck 10y agoLeasing is a thing
- rdm42116 10y agoStill too much, when you could probably lease a civic for way less
- JBReefer 10y agoIs it less than you pay {Civic monthly lease + (Civic Monthly Gas Cost - Bolt Electricity Cost)}?? Honest question! It seems like a critical mark for GM to hit with such an odd looking vehicle.
- pmarreck 10y ago> odd looking vehicle On this note, why is it that EVERY EV (except for the Tesla) has to "look a little weird" or "make a design statement"?
- 35bge57dtjku 10y agoThat's even less 'for the masses' AFAIK.
- vinay427 10y ago"The federal EV tax credit of $7,500 gets the price down to less than $30,000" [1] "the estimated average transaction price (ATP) for light vehicles in the United States was $33,666 in March 2016." [2] A car that costs less than the median purchase price for new vehicles in the US seems pretty close to "for the masses" to me. It's at least in the running for more than half of all new car buyers in terms of price (not in size or amenities, obviously). [1]: Parent article [2]: http://mediaroom.kbb.com/new-car-transaction-prices-up-2-percent-march-2016 http://mediaroom.kbb.com/new-car-transaction-prices-up-2-per...
- brightball 10y agoI still don't understand why anyone would buy a Bolt (or a Tesla) over a Volt. Since I heard about the Volt initially back in 2006, it was the most logical and practical approach to powering a vehicle that I'd ever heard. Eliminate gas usage on 95% of your driving, but have gas available for long range and fast refueling against the entire infrastructure of the US. Pure EV's are nothing more than "around town" cars in a lot of the country, which I'm sure is great if you can afford it or fun for early adopters but otherwise just an impractical luxury. That first 40 miles approach turned the MPG formula on it's head by making clear that miles-per-day is the real metric that people need to worry about. Going forward, the approach of the Volt could easily be modified to replace the gas generator and tank with fuel cells, bio-diesel, ethanol or any other power source that comes along. The perk of the approach is that you have 2 options and you aren't purely SOL after a long power outage from a hurricane or other unexpected event. That happens with an EV and you don't have another way to charge it via wind/solar you're left with a very expensive brick.
- coredog64 10y agoI already have 2 cars, so I'm not concerned about range. One of those cars is a Prius. While it has been very reliable, as we come up on 200,000 miles my wife is getting anxious about failure modes that are hybrid only. I mostly don't want to ever have to get another oil change again.
- camiller 10y agoWife has the minivan for when we all are going somewhere, daughter has a beater ('95 Buick) after she wrecked(totaled) my Impala(and two other peoples cars), All I need is an around the town car. I drive 3.6 miles to work, home for lunch then back to work and home again in the evening, sometime a few errands. The only practical drawback is how low slung these small cars are. As a backup if my wife's van is in the shop, we need something higher off the ground as the wife has had six back surgeries and getting in/out of something low is hard for her. If Chevy would do an all electric equinox...
- Vik1ng 10y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lOV6PdVQbk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lOV6PdVQbk Consumer Reports touches a bit on that. One advantage is for example that you don't have to worry about the maintenance and reliability of the combustion engine.
- astalwick 10y agoThis is a big deal. Car of the year, when you're talking about normal internal combustion cars, doesn't really matter that much. When you start talking about new (and, for $30000, scary) tech like electrics and hybrids 10-12 years ago, it makes a big impact on purchasing decisions. I bought my 2005 Prius largely based on the car of the year recommendation on the 2004 Prius (among other research, sure). That recommendation helped validate that I wasn't buying an experiment - people who know cars thought this was a great buy.
- gregwtmtno 10y agoI don't think it's such a big deal. The Volt won in 2011, and that car didn't change the automotive world substantially.
- astalwick 10y agoYou may be right. However, the Volt is basically just a hybrid with a bigger battery. By 2011, hybrids were pretty common, so being nervous about the tech wasn't as much of an issue. That's the point I'm trying to make: for most people, $30k is a pretty big investment. New tech is a risk, and awards like COTY go a long way to overcoming consumer resistance to that risk. It's possible, though, that Tesla has done enough to prove out electric cars. Tesla won COTY as well.
- ohstopitu 10y agoThis is a pet peeve of mine, but I don't get why cars need to change design (subjective: and make them ulgy) just because they are EVs? Tesla showed the world that a car could look like a "car" and still be electric. I'm all for innovations in design, but weird/ugly designs are also a reason that stops people from buying electric cars.
- w0utert 10y agoTo me, the Bolt looks just like all the other (non-EV) small/medium-sized hatchbacks, I'd say it's one of the things it has going for it compared to other small EV's.
- cx1000 10y agoIt's weird how obvious this is to consumers but how it's been lost on car manufacturers for so long. Literally everyone I know says the same thing about how ugly they are. Maybe now Tesla is helping them finally get it.
- ams6110 10y agoI think it's a result of wind-tunnel design and also trying to maximize interior space on a small chassis. I agree though, I don't like the look of most compact cars these days and even the Model 3 has sort of a weird looking "bulldog" snout for a front end.
- tromp 10y agoThe Bolt sacrifices aerodynamic efficiency for cargo space according to http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/chevy-bolt-family-design-aerodynamics-issue/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/chevy-bolt-family-design-a... "the Bolt still ended up with a drag coefficient of 0.32. The Toyota Prius has a coefficient of 0.24. The Bolt’s relatively high drag coefficient explains why, even though its battery pack is more powerful than the Tesla Model 3’s, it has a 200-mile driving range, compared to the the Tesla’s 215-mile range, according to Electrek. The Tesla has a coefficient of 0.21" More than enough reason for me to wait for the Tesla...
- maxsilver 10y ago
- _ph_ 10y agoGreat to see a really middle class electrical vehicle coming to the market with a good range. The big question though is: how many of them does GM plan to make? I have read that the first year production is planned to be 30k units with a possible extension to 50k units later on. That would be rather small numbers compared to what Tesla today sells and especially to the 400k preorders for the Model 3. I hope, that GM does ramp up numbers more.
- greglindahl 10y agoLG apparently has enough battery capacity that GM could make more, but I suspect GM doesn't have a good idea of how many they could sell. If you look on the Internets, you can see quite a few complaints about the Nissan Leaf buying experience: dealers are chock full of salespeople who do not understand electric cars. That will take time to fix.
- _ph_ 10y agoIs there any information about their total battery production capacity?
- cx1000 10y agoTwo questions: the article mentions "magnets made from a rare earth metal called dysprosium" are used in the motor. How rare is this and will it eventually limit volume? >the wide range of its current and projected uses, together with the lack of any immediately suitable replacement, makes dysprosium the single most critical element for emerging clean energy technologies - even their most conservative projections predict a shortfall of dysprosium before 2015. [0] My other question, as a non EV, owner is how easy is it to charge these? Can I charge from home or do I have to compete with others at charge stations? At work we have so many EVs that people have to rotate their cars throughout the day. Note: I'm pro electric car, just curious about scalability [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysprosium https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysprosium
- ygra 10y ago»Despite their name, rare earth elements are – with the exception of the radioactive promethium – relatively plentiful in Earth's crust, with cerium being the 25th most abundant element at 68 parts per million, or as abundant as copper. They are not especially rare, but they tend to occur together in nature and are difficult to separate from one another.« —Wikipedia
- WorldMaker 10y agoIt's pretty easy to charge an EV and many owners do charge at home as their primary place to charge. I have a '12 Volt that I charge on a standard outlet in my garage at home. This "trickle charge" is fairly slow, but enough to charge the Volt's smaller battery overnight and give me just shy of 40 miles for the day, which is more than enough most days to get to work, run errands, get back home on a single charge without needing to charge away from home (work doesn't have any chargers right now or easily accessible outside plugs) or use a cup or so of gas. This certainly works pretty well for me. I could install a higher voltage charger at home and charge faster, once I have the money to invest in that effort, but given my car is typically sitting in my garage overnight anyway, I haven't felt a strong need for it just yet. I think that home charging is something of an overlooked game changer about EVs. Admittedly not everyone will have that ability just yet (apartment complexes and people that need street parking don't easy available electricity to their parking spaces yet), but there is something really convenient to know that your car is charging at Home while you sleep where it would be sitting unused anyway.
- antongribok 10y agoI'm a little saddened by all of the comments about this "article" being written like an advertisement. Perhaps if people watched the actual award presentation they'd feel differently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SijPcSOhev4&t=1803 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SijPcSOhev4&t=1803 Also, some more info on behind the scenes: http://www.motortrend.com/news/behind-the-scenes-2017-car-of-the-year-testing/ http://www.motortrend.com/news/behind-the-scenes-2017-car-of...