You know if you have to explain a joke, that joke probably didn’t work? The same rule, unsurprisingly, also holds true in the equally dynamic and exciting world of taillights: if you have to explain how your taillights work, then your taillights don’t really work. And that’s exactly what we see going on here, in these pictures of a Chevy Bolt EUV, sent in by fellow taillight observer and Autopian reader William Samet. The pictures show a Bolt with a set of what appear to be custom stickers that are vainly attempting to fix a severe taillight design error on Chevy’s part. I’m sure they help, but it’s miserable they need to be there at all.
As you can see, the stickers read BRAKE LIGHT and then point down to the low-set brake lamp. in the Bolt’s bumper, next to the equally unexpectedly low-set turn indicator. These bumper-lights are a known problem, not just for Chevy, but other automakers as well, as we have covered this mess in detail before.
It’s not just that the lights are set really low, which isn’t great but definitely can work, as we have seen on several cars before:
Sure, the lights on those VW Type 4s and Chevy Malibus, for example, are really low and in close traffic may be hard to see, but at least there’s no confusion about where to look. The Bolt, on the other hand, with its upper set of red just-taillights, no brake lights, makes everything needlessly confusing.
The difference is huge: if you put a set of lights on the back of a car that look like they should be brake lights, based on decades and decades of precedent and innumerable other cars on the road, people will expect them to light up when you’re braking. If they don’t, then you have a recipe for needless and preventable rear-end wrecks.
It’s confusing and bad, and if you somehow didn’t think this is a big deal, just look up there and remember that someone actually went through the considerable time and effort and expense of designing and having custom stickers printed, and then stuck them on their relatively new car, just because they knew that the brake lights bestowed unto them by GM, charitably, suck.
Look at those stickers, lighting designers for the Bolt EUV. Feel the pain, a little bit, and then maybe see about making this right.
They made stickers.
It’s especially weird because Chevy has been one of the leaders of “we’ll use red tail lights that we just make brighter to also act as brake lights” for decades. I’m shocked if I ever see a Chevrolet with amber indicators.
I actually don’t mind these, but the whole LED dog bone shape Chevy is currently in love with looks ridiculous.
Trailblazer
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Jason should turn “My brakelights are down here” into a shirt to sell at his favorite tail light bar.
There’s a mod for it: https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/bolt-euv-tail-light-ultimate-mods.48009/
If you can’t see the lights at the bottom you’re too close!
If a car in front of me illuminates some bright red things while driving, those are automatically brake lights no matter where I’d have otherwise thought they’d be and it’s not even something I have to consciously think about. Those stickers are as useful as “Headlight” ones on recent Jeep Cherokees or Hyundai Konas where they’re in the spot you’d think was a fog light.
They were so fucking embarrassed they stopped making the car. Talk about an over-reaction.
As a 2019 Bolt owner, the design makes sense. The brake lights are high and the lower units only come on when the lift gate is open. I do t love the turn signal reverse light location that low, but it works well enough. Haven’t been rear ended yet. The new design, however, seems like it offers less visibility and makes the upper tail light units pointless. It’s a design decision I don’t understand and don’t like. I’m glad for my first gen model.