Chevy Bolt: Surviving The Tesla Model 3 Tsunami

Credit: Brooke Crothers

Chevy Bolts pack a dealer lot in Los Angeles. (Credit: Brooke Crothers)

The Chevy Bolt and Tesla Model 3 are very different cars. That doesn't mean the Bolt will escape the Model 3 tsunami unscathed.

And things got worse this past week (per negative media reports) for the Bolt, the first mass-market electric vehicle with a 200-mile-plus range: General Motors said it is suspending production at its Orion Township (Michigan) production facility, where it makes the Bolt, for longer than usual in July. This is happening just as Tesla is getting ready to crank up production of the Model 3.

For the record here are the statements GM sent me:

Regarding downtime at Orion Assembly – July down weeks at the plant consist of planned summer shutdown weeks and additional down week, which is related to softening sales of the [Chevy] Sonic. Production plans for the Bolt remain unchanged.
There are only 7,000 Bolt EVs in dealer stock or in transit. Divide that by the number of Bolt/certified dealers and we have roughly 6 per store. That is hardly overstocked*.
--General Motors

And here's what GreenCarReports said on July 10:

Last month, 1,642 Chevrolet Bolt EV 238-mile battery-electric hatchbacks found buyers, enough to take the Bolt's six-month aggregate to 7,592 deliveries all told.
--GreenCarReports

And Bloomberg said this in June: "Meanwhile, the most esoteric beasts in the GM family are running circles around the runty Bolt. In the past six months, U.S. customers bought about three times as many Cadillac Escalades and double the number of Corvettes—both paragons of a niche vehicle."

Contrast this with Elon Musk's bluster: he claims 20,000 Model 3s (215 mile range) a month by December. And if Tesla executes in 2018, that means its Fremont, Calif. factory will spit out hundreds of thousands of Model 3s by the end of 2018.

I asked GM about that too. Here's what Jim Cain, Chevrolet Business and Dealer Communications, said: "Tesla is certainly a unique company with a lot going for it. Let me respond...where is the 238-plus mile EV from Toyota, Honda, Fiat-Chrysler, Nissan, Hyundai-Kia, Nissan, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda, et al?"

Fair enough. GM is the only company offering real long-range competition to the Model 3. And, it's worth mentioning that the Chevy Bolt is a very good EV, as scores of reviews testify. And see this story from CleanTechnica ("Chevy Bolt Production — An Insider’s Viewpoint") for one "insider's" critical take on Tesla and the Model 3.

But with GM doing little high-profile national advertising for the Bolt and with Tesla getting gobs of free buzz and exposure from the media, I can't help but wonder how the Bolt will fare once Tesla hits its production stride with the Model 3 and begins hyping the Model Y SUV.

Then again, maybe GM can ride the EV (and Model 3) wave and tap into the growing number of consumers interested in EVs but who want the experience via a traditional dealer network.

And maybe GM's slow-but-steady approach will pay dividends when Tesla invariably hits a few bumps in the road gearing up for large-scale production of the Model 3.

We'll know a lot more by this time next year.

*I checked with my local Los Angeles dealer, one of the largest Volt/Bolt dealers in the U.S. They have 48 Bolt LTs and 25 Premiers in stock as of Sunday July 23. And, to date, they sell about 20 t0 3o Bolts a month.

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