Chevy Changes the Game with the 200-mile Bolt EV

• Ellen Smith


• 6 Jan 2016

Let’s get the cliches about the Chevy Bolt out of the way, shall we? The Chevy Bolt is a game-changer. It’s like driving the future. It’s a Tesla Model 3 killer.

Now that we’ve cleared our system of all that silliness and excitement, let’s discuss the details and implications of the Chevrolet’s all-new, long-range electric car that debuted this week at International CES.

First off, it will be capable of traveling more than 200 miles (Chevy’s still scant on exact numbers) on a single charge and it will cost around $30,000 after a $7,500 tax deduction. Those are the two biggest figures you need to know and ones that make it a very impressive car not only for General Motors but also the American car market.

Important, too, is what Chevy has mounted in the center dash: a 10.2-inch touchscreen that is running the new MyLink infotainment system. Rather than forcing drivers to hunt through tons of menus, MyLink designers utilized the massive screen to display a lot of useful info in one place.

Going one step further, they created different widget-based themed displays like ones for a family or one for someone who’s keen to monitor eco driving data. They even left an open, customizable screen where you can load in all your favorite widgets in one place.

That big screen is just the start of the tech tale with the Bolt, however. Click the shifter into reverse and the screen lights up with a split-screen showing a standard rearview camera view and also a virtual bird’s eye view of the car called ‘Surround Vision’ created by digitally stitching together the images of four external cameras into one.

Here’s the best bit, though: Look up to the rearview mirror and flip the tab behind it, as if you were trying to obscure the reflection of a bright set of headlights behind you and the mirror lights up with an 80-degree rearview from the rear camera. Not only is it a wider field of view, it also cuts out the headrests and rear passengers from your vision. Aside from the range, that might be my favorite feature.Chevy has also fitted the Bolt with low-energy Bluetooth. That means its Bluetooth is always on and always searching for your smartphone. Get within 100 feet of the car and it’ll pair with your car. As if to show you it knows your coming, as soon as the Bluetooth connection is made, the car’s lights will come on. This, as you might imagine, will be helpful finding your Bolt in a dark parking lot.

Moreover, it aides in switching to your car’s Bluetooth in the middle of a call. Although it taps into your phone, the Bolt won’t takeover the call until you tell it to on the MyLink screen. The low-energy Bluetooth also allows owners to pair as many as 10 devices and the onboard 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot supports up to seven devices at once.

Speaking of rear passengers, thanks to ingenious interior packaging, they — like the front passengers — have plenty of space.

The floor is flat. However, the battery pack has been mounted underneath the passenger compartment, which causes the seating position to be a relatively tall one. This forced designers to give the exterior shape a crossover roofline to aid in interior headroom.

And those batteries that span underneath your feet can be fully charged on a 240-volt charger in nine hours while 90-miles worth of charge can be had in around 30 minutes on a DC fast-charger. Chevy was quick to point out, though, that the nine-hour charge is something virtually no customer will ever face, as the average American drives fewer than 40 miles per day.

The all-new Bolt will go on sale in late 2016. Likely, this isn’t the last long-range EV we’ll see come out this year. Tesla has said it will reveal the long-awaited Model 3 in Spring 2016. Even if that’s true, Chevy is extremely proud to have beaten Elon Musk to the punch.

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