It feels like GM tradition to kill a car as soon as it gets good. The Pontiac Fiero was axed after it gained new suspension for 1988, the Pontiac GTO was offed a couples years after gaining six-liter V8 power. The Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid died just before plug-in hybrids truly went mainstream. Well, tradition is just peer pressure from dead people, and GM now seems determined to break the habit. It turns out that the Chevrolet Bolt EV isn’t actually dead, it’s just in the waiting room for the time being.
Welcome back to The Morning Dump, our daily series of bite-size news tidbits too short for full stories yet important enough that we need to discuss them. Today, the Chevrolet Bolt is coming back, Electrify America charging prices are going up, RVs are in the dumps, and Tesla might be headed to India. There’s so much coming and going in this one, it feels like an airport.
It’s Comeback Season For The Chevrolet Bolt
Earlier this year, it felt like the affordable Chevrolet Bolt EV — GM’s first high-volume fully electric car — was thoroughly dead. Chevrolet announced a production wind-down, discontinuing the Bolt after the 2023 model year and bringing an end to an unlikely late-life success story in the affordable EV market. But wait, the Chevrolet Bolt EV is re-entering the ring with a metal chair! [Editor’s Note: This is a wrestling reference. This took me a while. -DT]. Thanks to an official GM email to owners forwarded by reader Brett, we’ve learned that Chevrolet’s inexpensive, popular EV will return in some form. After all, the email couldn’t be any clearer — It opens with the phrase “Bolt is back.” Let’s take a look at what the body copy says.
Well, that’s certainly unexpected, and a welcome change from GM’s history of killing something just as it got good. Of equal importance, with the Equinox EV expected to sit around the $30,000 mark based on prior GM announcements, the next Bolt could be less expensive than that to avoid cannibalizing sales. As of right now, we have no idea what form the next Bolt will take, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a small hatchback or crossover. In any case, we’ll just have to wait and see what GM has planned for its next-generation entry-level EV, but its existence at all feels like it could be a victory for consumers.
GM Reportedly Blames Slow Ultium Battery Roll-Out On Suppliers
Another day, another story about supplier mayhem. It feels par for the course in the topsy-turvy year of 2023, doesn’t it? This time, it’s automation for GM’s vaunted Ultium battery packs, as Reuters reports GM CEO Mary Barra claimed ramp-up delays during a recent investor call.
Barra said battery production at the Ultium joint venture plant in Lordstown, Ohio, has been hampered because “our automation equipment supplier is struggling with delivery issues.” The situation should be resolved by year-end, Barra said. GM in the meantime is building battery modules by hand on manual assembly lines, she said.
No wonder Hummer EV production is at a crawl. Imagine screwing together those massive packs by hand. In any case, the year-end resolution target set by GM is critical, for EV plans without battery packs is the new-school equivalent of wanting to build cars but not having any engines. GM has bet the farm on Ultium-powered vehicles of all sorts, from the reasonably-priced Chevrolet Equinox EV crossover to the ultra-lux Cadillac Celestiq plutocratmobile, so getting this right will be mission-critical.
The RVcession Is Here
It’s an expensive time to be alive, and that’s hitting some makers and sellers of pricey machines square in the wallets. Just like how EVs are loitering on dealership lots, Reuters reports that the RV industry is dealing with a post-pandemic slump.
Retail sales of recreational vehicles are on track to be the lowest since 2015, said Ferrando, CEO and president of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Blue Compass RV, which operates in 33 U.S. states. There’s “definitely a recession in RVs,” he said.
Recreational vehicle sales boomed during the first few years of the pandemic, as consumers essentially found themselves all dressed up with nowhere to go. Disruptions to normalcy like work-from-home and restaurant closures reduced general consumer spending, while international border restrictions and questions around how sickness spreads on airplanes turned off the taps for international wanderlust. Flush with cash and wanting a different view, consumers leapt into the RV pool, hitting the road to see America. It was a boom, and like all booms, it’s turned into a bust.
But trouble emerged soon after pandemic restrictions were eased and U.S. interest rates began to rise. The Federal Reserve has hiked borrowing costs 10 times since last March as part of an aggressive campaign to tame high inflation. The U.S. central bank’s benchmark overnight interest rate has climbed by 5 percentage points to the 5.00%-5.25% range, the highest level in about a decade-and-a-half.
The interest rate consumers pay on loans is well above even that, and RV loans recently have averaged around 10% versus 7% or so before the Fed’s monetary tightening kicked into high gear, Ferrando said. With 80% of his company’s customers financing their purchases, it was natural that rapid rate hikes would curb buyers’ appetites.
The explanation behind the slump makes sense. Rising costs of living and high interest rates have left consumers with little money and less affordable borrowing, and when times get tough, big-ticket items are the first to go. However, as it stands, Reuters is reporting sales of RVs, ATVs, and other playthings are still well above pre-pandemic levels, so perhaps this rapid downward plunge is more of a minor slump than a recession indicator.
Electrify America EV Charging Is About To Get More Expensive
Well, yes, if you can charge at home or at work. However, if you say, live in an old apartment, work from home, and can’t convince your superintendent to install charging hardware in your building, you’re at the mercy of public charging networks. Electrify America is one of this industry’s juggernauts, and InsideEVs reports that major pricing changes are coming that could make charging at EA stations noticeably more expensive. What changes are we talking about? Why, I’m glad you asked.
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The monthly fee to be a Pass+ subscriber is going up from $4.00 to $7.00. That translates to an additional $36 per year ($84 per year compared to the previous $48/year), Pass+ members will still get a 25% discount on the per-kWh or per-minute price, depending on what state they are charging in.
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Electrify America is transitioning from set pricing across the country to a station-specific pricing model that is subject to change. The Electrify America app will show the station-specific prices, the company is urging its members to always check the station for pricing when they arrive because it’s possible the price listed in the app may be incorrect.
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Electrify America will begin to charge idle fees at most of its locations nationwide. After a ten-minute grace period, the customer will be billed $0.40 per minute until they unplug the vehicle from the charger.
Although charging idle fees is a great stick to deter charger hogs, the rest of these changes seem unlikely to benefit consumers. Don’t get me wrong, $84 a year to save 25 percent on DC fast charging may still be worth it if you do a ton of road trips in your EV, but a 75 percent increase in membership fees is outrageous. It’s a similar deal with Tesla-style dynamic pricing — some stations will still be good deals, but some probably won’t. An expensive product can still have a market if it’s brilliant, seamless, and reliable to use, but this is Electrify America we’re talking about here.
Tesla Goes To India For Cheap EVs?
The electric transition is going to require a ton of manufacturing resources, and Tesla certainly set the standard for EV assembly plant scale. After plunking down plants from Texas to China, Reuters reports that Tesla is now looking to get in on an emerging economic powerhouse by building electric vehicles in India.
Tesla has expressed an interest in building a factory in India that would produce low-cost electric vehicles (EVs) for the local market and for export, the person said, adding that the company had indicated that it would be for the new vehicle.
The discussions represent a sharp reversal for the company after efforts last year to reduce import taxes on EVs shipped to India were scuppered by calls from government officials to commit to making cars locally.
More important than a possible Indian production plant is what might be built there. From the sound of it, this isn’t just shaping up to be a place to crank out more Model Y crossovers, but a facility for a new EV altogether.
The 2 million rupee ($24,000) EV Tesla representatives were said to have described in discussions about a potential Indian plant would be 25% cheaper than its current lowest priced offering, the Model 3 sedan which sells for the equivalent of just over $32,200 in China.
The concept of a $24,000 EV isn’t shocking. From dirt-cheap Chinese EVs to the reasonably-priced 2023 Chevrolet Bolt, it’s been proven possible to make an electric vehicle sold in the mid-20s to the masses. Since price is the largest driving factor in vehicle purchases, cheap EVs are necessary to get the world electrified. Thanks to inflation and wage compression, new vehicles are falling further and further out of reach of the average American, and an inexpensive high-volume option is what the market demands. However, with promised Tesla products often missing production timing targets (Cybertruck) or coming in above claimed prices (Model 3), I’ll believe this one when I see it.
Your Turn
With the news of an eventual Chevrolet Bolt return and chatter about an inexpensive Tesla, I’d love to know how far out you predict $25,000 new EVs to be in America? Are we talking 2030, 2027, or perhaps sometime sooner than you’d ever imagine? More importantly, if another manufacturer with a Supercharging agreement comes out with a cheap new EV, will Tesla’s rumored baby model even be worth it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
(Photo credits: Chevrolet, Winnebago, Electrify America, Tesla)
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If the new Bolt stays under $25k I’m buying it immediately. I have a gen 1 Bolt right now that I use for my small business. I want an EV to make regional runs where fast charging may be necessary, so an Ultium Bolt would be absolutely perfect
Was it ever under $25k?
With incentives, you could get it around the 22k range assuming you’re eligible
Starts at $26k and gets $7500 in tax credit. Starting next year, the tax credit will come at the point of sale, so yes they can absolutely get it under $25k. Especially since Barra said they can reduce battery cost by 40% and sale price by 20%
If a jump from $4.00/month to $7.00/month is a budget buster, you obviously made bad life & career choices…
To be fair it’s a significant jump for something that, unless you have a high utilization of, is just money going into the company’s pockets.
Easy for you to say, apparently. It obviously has nothing to do with the habitual hoarding of wealth that’s become so popular in this country.
I cant believe some are objecting to this comment.Hilarious.
Who spends 25K++! then complains about an extra $36 per year?
I look forward to Electrify America charging me more. It means that I got their charger to work. (I’m specifically talking to YOU EA at Walmart 5669 – West Milwaukee, WI).
The same thing goes for EVGo. Charge me so much that your chargers work well enough so that you don’t remove them. (I am specifically talking to YOU EVGO at Outpost Natural Foods in Milwaukee).
Finally, I look forward to Shell Recharge successfully charging me something for the first successful charge I get from them in the future, because previous attempts have been failures. (I am specifically talking to YOU Shell Recharge at the Madison Charging Hub).
Wisconsin EV chargers are so hit and miss. I’ve had good luck with the one at MKE and IKEA in Oak Creek. Whole Foods and Walmart are a joke though, good call on them.
As far as the RV industry goes, good. They’ve been putting out garbage for the past four years (even when compared against their previous garbage standards) and prices have gone through the roof. The products they’re producing and the value proposition being offered are downright shameful. A sales downturn couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.
You’re being generous. The product has been trash for 15 years or more.
Oh yeah, they’ve been disposable trash for a long time. My parents’ 2003 manufactured by Thor was horrendous. But at least they were somewhat cheap. The quality’s never been worse but now they’re insanely expensive to boot.
I don’t get RVs at all. You can buy comfortable hotel rooms for a lot less than the TCOs of those things.
As someone who works in the RV industry currently, I can tell you for certain this is definitely not a slump and is a big flashing warning light for a recession.
Wholesale new RV prices (in Canada) went up between 30-40% depending on the model during 2021-2022, largely due to the fact the industry is mostly controlled by two companies.
Quality became worse than ever (which is really saying something) and manufactures got super greedy and basically screwed the entire industry. We are down about 60% this year, after a 20% drop last year. It is catastrophically bad. Manufactures are already idling plants and will likely be shutting down/selling off some by next year.
I honestly don’t see a $25,000 EV happening. At least from the current crop of manufacturers. If, and this is a big if, Chinese manufacturers are allowed here that would be the only shot. Corporate greed is out of control and nobody with any power cares or will do anything about it.
This is the 20th “there will never be a $25k EV” comment, and I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. You can buy one today, brand new, with 259 miles of range, for $26.5k. Its called the Chevy Bolt EV. What am I missing? Sure it’s $1500 over, but damn well close enough.
This is The Price Is Right. If you’re over, you lose.
Hahahhaha. Thats what I figured, but the negative comments about the greedy industry, inflation, and general pessimism seems way overblown.. If you search, you can probably find them marked down under $25k.
What you’re missing is you can’t actually get one. They’ve all been taken.
Nope, there’s a gazillion on Cars.com for $26.5k-$27.5k. I haven’t even checked CarGurus or Autotrader, and I bet you can make offers for under MSRP.
Used EVs sell for less than $25,000 all the time. How many New $25,000 ICE cars sell each year?
123,842 in 2022 and 46,893 so far this year.
Regarding the Bolt… it’s a good entry-level car name for Chevy. It’s the right size and even the performance/range is fine for what it is. All it really needs is a NACS charging port and the related access to true fast charging.
I understand why they’re cancelling the current one… with it not being a true in-house design.
I imagine the new one will be a derivative of the Ultium platform
Regarding the slow Ultium battery rollout… “Barra said battery production at the Ultium joint venture plant in Lordstown, Ohio, has been hampered because “our automation equipment supplier is struggling with delivery issues.”
Perhaps Barra should call Grohmann Engineering GmbH (aka Tesla Automation) for some help.. LOL
On a more serious note, by buying Grohmann, Tesla screwed over a bunch of other companies and made it harder for them to catch up to where Tesla is.
Regarding Tesla and India… India would be a logical place to develop and build a BEV slotted below the Model 3 in size and price. I’m looking forward to this. I’m hoping it shapes up to being the size, shape and practicality of a Honda Fit, but with Tesla tech. But I don’t expect to see this in volume production until around 2030.
“I’d love to know how far out you predict $25,000 new EVs to be in America?”
At the rate things are going, I expect some company will be selling a $25K BEV (in today’s dollars) in North America by 2030. I think Tesla will be selling a smaller car by then, but not in North America.
And given that we haven’t even seen a prototype of this planned small Tesla, I’m guessing 2030 will be the earliest time we will see it in volume production in India. And even after that happens, chances are we won’t see it in North America for at least a year or five as I suspect other markets like the local Indian market, the EU and China would be higher priorities for a vehicle like that.
Also, regardless of whether some other company offers a smaller $25K BEV before Tesla does, that’s okay. We need more model variety when it comes to BEVs and competition is good for the consumer.
Yay! The Bolt is back!
This tells me two things: 1) There’s a snowball’s chance that the Equinox comes out anywhere near $30k. 2) They expect the Ultium rollout to be slow for an extended period of time.
Re: Electrify America
It’s like they saw everyone jumping ship for the Tesla charging standard and thought the best way to respond was to raise prices and introduce the worst part of the gas station experience. This is why Tesla’s market share is relatively safe for the near future – their only competition in the charging space is utterly incompetent.
“…tradition is just peer pressure from dead people…”
This is the best saying I’ve heard in a while, and I’m going to unabashedly use it from now on. I hope you don’t mind.
It is unclear to me why charging an EV requires a membership fee. Or a phone app. Or an account. I can drive up to 95% of the gas/diesel pumps in the US and fuel a vehicle without having any of those things.
This is me too. If you can measure a quantity of stuff I take, and charge me a given amount per unit, why can’t I just plug in and pay. Exactly like gas. I don’t actually particularly care for the thought of telling these businesses all the info they suck out in exchange for the electricals they put in.
I would put that number higher than 95%. The only ones that require a membership that I’m aware of are places like Costco and Sam’s Club, both of which are a tiny fraction of the gas station market.
You’re probably right, but I lowballed my estimate in the absence of hard facts. On top of the membership clubs, I was figuring for fleet fueling stations like CFN.
You’re right. All the different charging companies foecing consumers to have their own accounts serves two purposes of benefit to the charging company.
Perhaps #1 below could be argued to benefit you as an end consumer, assuming of course their charge handshake actually worked well, which I understand is Extremely hit or miss…
1. Saves them money by not having to install card readers at their charging stations (and a
Saving on associated card reader maintenence)
2. So the charging network can make even more money by selling your data (type of car, age, name, income, charging habits, etc…) to 3rd party companies
Because companies see the personal data they can glean from your phone as valuable for resale.
Norway got their act together and mandated credit card payment on chargers, hopefully that’ll spread: https://www.electrive.com/2023/07/05/norway-introduces-card-payment-requirement-at-dc-charging-points/
This is one situation i’ll side with the data-rape crowd.An app almost never fails,while unguarded credit card machines often do
US Automaker Mean Girls
GM is the vain girl, always worried that someone will say something bad about her.
“You liked the Bolt? I’m so sorry, I’ll bring it back right away!”
Ford girl has no self confidence so she hurts herself.
“Our cars are crap and too expensive. Let’s do another recall.”
Stellantis is defiant party girl.
“You want EVs? FU. Here’s a Dodge Durango Hellcat”
Tesla is Instagram girl, constantly seeking attention.
“You may love me or hate me but you can’t ignore me!”
We need the automaker equivalent of super smart loner girl.
“Here’s an inexpensive EV with a small battery that makes sense AND gets long range through an emphasis on load reduction, is totally repairable with basic tools without needing to go to a dealership, but I’m shunned because the other girls are scared of me.”
The smart girl is maybe someone like Canoo, but she is homeschooled at the moment and only seen randomly.
With glasses.
Stellantis is defiant party girl.
She’s moderately hot, has a kid that does not live with her, has abysmal credit, and lived in Las Vegas for juuusssttt a little too long.
*was hot 5-10 years ago and sometimes still is, given the right light and level of substance intake.
For the Bolt, I think they’re still making the Bolt EUV in China, aka the Buick Velite 7. So probably will be mostly Chinese, with just enough content/assembly here to get some of that sweet sweet tax rebates, and maybe not get the tariffs.
Tesla probably won’t sell the $25k EV here, similar to VW not selling the ID3 here, why would they when they can sell it overseas where goverments are paying them to sell EVs regardless of where they’re built?
I think as others have said the days of $25k EVs/Cars are just about over, unless again some Chinese/Vietnamese company comes in all disruptive-like.
Even with this increase, I had no idea Electrify America was so cheap for membership. Still, if you can afford the price of the $50,000 plus EV, are you really going to notice an extra $40 a year?
And on the same note, why is an idle fee only 40 cents a minute? You want people to move and free up chargers in a timely manner? Make it $40 a minute.
Exactly (to both)
Hot Take: I personally don’t think we will ever see a $25k new EV. We could have had that 25 years ago using NiMH batteries, in a slippery aerodynamic sedan getting 200 miles range, if mass produced. The will just isn’t there among the mainstream automakers, and back then, they were hostile to the idea of EVs. Now, the historic major brands are scrambling to catch up with Tesla(a company that barely knows what it is doing, and the barely part is even questionable) or get left behind by a consumer market that has had a latent unmet demand for this type of vehicle all along for decades. But the historic OEMs don’t want to cannibalize sales of the overpriced high margin products they are used to selling, and that is why we don’t have an electric equivalent of a Mitsubishi Mirage with a 200 mile range. Everything on the market consumes 2x as much energy as it needs to for a given level of utility and passenger comfort, requiring 2x costlier battery packs.
They’re probably extending Bolt production because of the trouble they’re having procuring the stuff to make the Ultium cars.
Also, they need to bring back the cool colors. The Bolt used to be available in Shock.
Right. It seems pretty clear that #1 and #2 are linked. The factory that will be making the truck EVs is the factory that makes the Bolt. The Bolt was dying so it could make room for the trucks. If GM already knows they cant make the trucks at an acceptable volume, it’s a heckuvalot better to keep making the Bolt and not idle the plant until some unspecified future date when their Ultium battery supply problems are magically solved. If making money instead of not making money wasnt reason enough, it’s especially important to keep that plant running with UAW negotiations just beginning this month and one of the union’s biggest sticking points being “y’all are going to try and screw us with the switch to EVs.”
On the RV front, yes, 10% interest on a heavily depreciating asset like that is crazy.
BUT, I submit the pandemic cash grab is what is really hurting sales.
We bought a Jayco 5th wheel in 2016. The exact same model is selling for double what we paid 7 years ago. I am not talking the fake, made up MSRP. Actual sale prices have doubled in 7 years. I understand there has been inflation and everything is more expensive, but RV prices have doubled in 7 years. Dealers and manufacturers have made record profits during this time. I believe folks are realizing the prices of RVs are insane and maybe they are not worth the asking price.
I can say, I would not own an RV at today’s prices. Not a new one for sure.
We have actually contemplated selling ours. It was built before the utter crap the pandemic produced. We have been offered what we paid 7 years ago for it……..Let that sink in if you think prices have not gone crazy.
Campground prices (thank goodness we often boondock or go to limited infrastructure areas) have also nearly doubled in that same 7 year span. And, there are waiting lists for the privilege to pay those prices. Trips have to be planned 6 months to a year in advance to guarantee a spot. COVID Campers have changed the whole experience. Gone are the days we could decide to take a long weekend on a Thursday and find a campsite easily.
The quality of the pandemic RVs really are terrible. I’ve been reading pieces about that for a while now. Coupled with the outrageous pricing. No way would I be getting a new one anytime soon.
This has been my exact experience too. My Dad bought an early pandemic RV and a year later the same model was going for approximately double what he paid. Campgrounds that I used to be able to stay at for a week without breaking the bank are now eye-wateringly expensive even for a few nights, assuming you can even get a site.
I was pretty confident GM would bring the Bolt back. They just needed to take a bit of time to figure out how to turn it into a 3 row 7 seater, jack it up and slap lots of ersatz cladding on it.
This just means the Bolt is going to come back as a trim package on the upcoming CamaroCross EV that’ll start at $59,999 and have speakers on the back that make V8 noises
I can’t wait to see what the CamaroCross NASCAR racer will look like. Will they actually include the rear doors on the design at this point, since there’s no longer really a reason to not do so?