Chevy Bolt prototype interior

The Chevy Bolt is a big deal.  It’s the first sub-$30k (with incentives) electric vehicle that has an over-200 mile range.  238 mile rated range, to be precise, which seems to be holding up in real-world conditions.  It’s set to hit the showrooms in January, and it should open up EVs to a much broader market of consumers.

In a very good sign, Motor Trend has already named it the 2017 Car of the Year:

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Bolt EV is there are no caveats, no “for an electric car” qualifiers needed in any discussion. It is, simply, a world-class small car, and that’s before you factor in the benefits inherent in the smoothness, silence, and instant-on torque provided by the electric motor. The ride is firm and sporty, but transmitted road noise is very well damped. The steering has slightly artificial weighting, but brake feel is natural, and once you learn to use the higher regenerative braking modes, you can pretty much drive all the time without touching the friction brakes at all.

But some question the lack of sleek “coolness” that distinguishes Tesla from all the boxy or buggy EV competitors.  In an otherwise positive review, Lawrence Ulrich at The Drive laments the aesthetics:

I truly hope I’m wrong here. But the Bolt, like so many would-be Detroit pioneers before it, fails to absorb the blackboard lesson of that hot professor Tesla: A cutting-edge car should be cool. It should spark daytime reveries and nighttime desire.

The Bolt’s cool factor, frankly, hovers right around zero. Electric tech aside, there’s no sense of gotta-have, from the kitchen-appliance exterior to a cheapskate cabin that screams “Middle America” like Jim Harbaugh’s WalMart khakis.

Personally, I think the car doesn’t look that bad, and it’s certainly an improvement over models like the Volt, i3 and LEAF.  But I do wonder why automakers aren’t marketing the cars more as performance machines rather than Eco-vehicles.  Tesla has exploited that aspect of EVs perfectly, leaving competitors in the dust.  I’m no engineer, but I wonder if Chevy could have smoothed out the blocky shape a bit to give the car an edge.

In the end, my guess is the Bolt will be a success, especially with the Model 3 coming next.  I wholeheartedly agree with Ulrich that it will make similarly priced short-range EVs like the LEAF obsolete. Ultimately, the car signifies that EVs are here to stay and accessible to a much larger group of buyers.  I look forward to seeing them on the road.