If they were trying, they would have started at the tires and designed a new platform from there... instead of attempting to impose an ICE design. New drivetrain options - they had a clean slate, like Tesla. They chose not to take advantage of that freedom and instead simply shoe-horned an electric drivetrain into an ICE.
In what way is the Bolt EV "an ICE design"? Seriously. Because it is FWD? That's all I can think of. But, of course, the Model 3 is not a non-ICE design just because it is RWD. There are plenty of RWD ICE cars.
Tesla uses RWD, in large part, because they option up performance versions of the car and those levels of power work better with RWD just like an ICE Corvette etc. from a Chevy dealer.
In fact, the Bolt EV is designed from the tires up as a BEV with a large under-the-floor structurally integrated battery pack just as much as Tesla did with the S, C, or 3. The Bolt's platform unibody structure is an entirely new design.
There is not a EV grid in North America. With 2 proprietary and one SAE standard, there probably never will be. It opens the gate to each MFR to do a proprietary charge format.
Assuming it stays at 3 formats for charging, it will be 50 years at the current level of expansion to match the ICE infrastructure. And guess what? EV's need more density for the same volume of cars. Many EVs are less than 100 miles, and charge rates will never match liquid fuel miles per minute rates.
I think you are overstating things a bit here... At least one of CHAdeMO or SAE CCS is going to fade away over the next 10 years like Betamax vs VHS. I'm placing my bet that CCS will win as it has a simpler to use plug design and soon more BEV makers behind it. Kia/Hyundai are apparently switching to CCS in their new models. All Euro makers will be CCS. GM, Ford, and FCA/Chrysler are all CCS although only GM has cars on the road now.
CHAdeMO is basically Nissan. Neither Honda or Toyota have made US-delivery DC charging cars and haven't clearly committed to any CHAdeMO cars in the immediate future that I'm aware of. Let's get some perspective -- we are still very early days in terms of DC charging station rollout and what matters is future installations rather than what we have now.
3) [GM] Say they are "not an infrastructure company" and doing practically nothing to add infrastructure for their cars (something even I didn't expect given they are a leader in SAE and how sorely CCS is behind in the USA vs CHAdeMO and superchargers).
Yep, I think that's a mistake and 300,000 Model 3 reservations may change their mind. Also, I don't take statements like that too seriously. GM said as recently as a couple of years ago that they weren't going to do non-plug hybrids and then turned around and announced the 46 mpg mid-size Malibu hybrid. They were obviously working on the Malibu while saying they weren't doing regular hybrids. The same may apply to interstate charging. The various CCS supporting makers ultimately need to compete with Tesla, especially the Euro premium car makers near term. It's in the common short-term business interest of the Euro companies and GM to cooperate with some 3rd party (ChargePoint...) to build out an initial interstate charging system starting in areas within a few hundred miles of their BEV customers who are clustered along the coasts. Because the economics and business strategy favor it, I'm guessing it will be done.
It's not religion. GM's idea might have worked if they actually kept their Volt concept's promise of a car under $30k instead of $41k. So their idea of having an engine, didn't keep the price down. The Leaf that came out at the same time ended up less expensive at $33k. GM also had to sacrifice the rear seat space (something not fully solved with gen 2).
The Volt's concept was usable in-town electric driving with road trip ability. That's beyond what the LEAF could offer and they also put more effort and $$ into doing the battery pack right.
Much like the Model S, but at a smaller scale, GM was riding the battery pricing curve. Both the Model S and the initial model year Volt were pricy because of this. GM incrementally dropped the price across model year (while tweaking battery storage size).
Today's Volt is about $10,000 less in today's dollars (inflation adjusted) than the 2011 Volt. With the fed credit and a CA rebate (where 40+% of Volts are sold) you can buy a Volt for $25,000 including destination charge and that's before dealer discounts which are good for another $1-2k. In other words, about the same price as a similarly equipped Prius liftback. The fed credit will soon be gone but battery price drops on the 18.4 kWh pack will help compensate.
