Availability of GM’s bestselling EV dwindles
Only few thousand Bolt units can be found around country
The 2024 Chevrolet Bolt and Bolt EUV electric vehicles are nearly gone from U.S. dealership lots. GM told the Detroit Free Press on Monday only a few thousand remain, largely on the West Coast.
The Bolt has been GM’s bestselling EV to date, supporting the automaker’s fledgling sales of newer, high-priced EVs.
But the Bolt EVs use General Motors’ previous generation propulsion technology. GM’s newer EVs, such as the GMC Hummer, Chevrolet Blazer EV or Cadillac Lyriq, use the automaker’s proprietary Ultium propulsion system. Therefore, GM stopped production of the Bolt and Bolt EUV — an SUV-styling of the all-electric vehicle — at Orion Assembly plant in Orion Township, in December.
The nameplate will continue. CEO Mary Barra said the next generation of Bolt EVs will arrive in 2025 using Ultium. She did not provide vehicle details or say where it would be built. GM is retooling the Orion Assembly plant to build future Chevrolet Silverado electric pickups by late 2025.
But don’t expect the current iteration of the vehicle to be available for long.
“Last year’s production of the Bolt and EUV barely outpaced sales in the U.S., not including exports to Canada or Mexico,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions. “With sales averaging just over 4,000 units a month at the end of 2023, any overbuild last year will be absorbed shortly. Since production ended in December, only a handful of leftover Bolts should remain in dealer hands by the start of summer.”
Sell-down ‘going as planned’
On Monday, Chevrolet spokesman Chad Lyons told the Detroit Free Press that GM ended the year with about 10,000 current Bolt and Bolt EUVs in inventory across the nation. GM had planned to sell them down in the first
quarter. As of April 1, there are just “a few thousand” of them left in the country, Lyons said.
“Bolt EV and EUV sell-down is going as planned and expected,” Lyons said in an email. “We have modest availability in all regions still, with the Western Region having the most available inventory (by design) given the region’s affinity for EVs. The Bolt sell-down coincides well with the ramp up of (Chevrolet) Blazer EV and the launch of (Chevrolet) Equinox EV and Silverado EV RST in coming months.”
For all of last year, GM reported a record of 62,045 sales of the Bolt and Bolt EUV. That’s a 63% increase over 2022 sales of the cars. The Bolt has served as an entry vehicle for Chevrolet with over 70% of buyers trading in a nonGM vehicle for a Bolt, Lyons said.
The Bolt’s replacement, the 2024 Blazer EV, started shipping to dealerships in late July 2023. But GM had to put a stop-sale on the vehicle on Dec. 22 until March 8 to fix software problems. The vehicle is built in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. Since restarting sales, GM also lowered the price of the Blazer EV. For example, the LT all-wheel-drive Blazer EV had an original starting price of $56,715; it now starts at $50,195. After the $7,500 tax credit, the price would be $42,695.
The Equinox EV, another Bolt replacement, is due out later this year and the first trim will be heavily loaded with content and start at $48,995. The base model, which will start at $34,995, not including the $7,500 federal tax credit, will arrive next year.
One Bolt left
Gordon Chevrolet in Garden City has sold 10 Bolt EUVs this year and has one left on the lot, said Gordon Stewart, owner of Gordon Chevrolet.
A 2023 Silver Bolt, priced at about $32,000,
is still available, Stewart said. While he has not had any customer interest in it for the past 30 days, he is confident it will sell because there is a GM employee discount of $1,000 and it is eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit.
“They’re not sale-proof; they are priced right,” Stewart said. “We’ll sell it. We’re not worried about selling it. When you only have one, someone has to like the color and all the features.”
If a customer doesn’t like the color or features, don’t expect many dealers to trade with another dealer for a different one or to ship it, unless it is local, Stewart said. The profit margins are too thin and transportation costs for shipping would eat it up, he said.
No Blazer EV in stock yet
As for the Blazer EV and Equinox EV, Stewart said there is “tremendous interest” from his customers in the EVs, but some price hesitation because they are expensive. He has not received a Blazer EV yet.
“Everything is still in short supply,” Stewart said. “Inventory has improved, we have some limited inventory. But it’s not the same like when we had hundreds of vehicles and a customer picked one and they would drive off with it. It’s a different market.”
Stewart said high interest rates mean GM does not want to have to help dealers pay on a big floor plan of inventory. Floor planning is when dealers use a short-term loan to buy new vehicles and the loan is repaid as inventory is sold, so every day the car sits on the lot, the dealer or GM is paying interest on it.
“So if GM can make money on the current inventory they’ve got, GM is not going to increase stock — not until interest rates come down,” Stewart said.