Chevy "introduced" the Bolt at CES this week. (For many more details see
THIS thread; here I'm just briefly introducing it and talking about the effect on other automakers).
GM had shown the concept - what, nearly a year ago? And they've said dribs and drabs about it, and it's been seen in testing under camo. But at CES they talked more about the car, confirmed it will be available in 2016 (though likely very late), that it has 200 miles of EPA range, and that it will start at $37,500. They also had largely-production-intent vehicles available for the press to drive - they had non-production striping and head/taillights, and some of the dash and door panels were covered, so not everything is final.
Reactions have been pretty good (and I like the car; I will give one heavy consideration). While not a beautiful car, and it's still a hatchback which the US is not fond of, it is more mainstream-looking than the LEAF or i3. And people seem to love the idea of 200 miles of range for $3x,000. They will offer SAE Combo DC charging, though if they plan on any DC buildout they have not announced it yet. While GM has not been clear on numbers, from their suppliers it looks like they only plan to build about 30k per year, although there appears to be some efforts (unclear how urgent) to increase that capacity.
Giving out this many details so far in advance of the car actually being able to be purchased is in-line with what they've been doing with PEVs so far: don't worry about tanking current sales by talking about what's coming; instead, use what's coming to build the brand by showing how advanced GM is in offering practical, affordable, clean technology. The idea behind the marketing -at least so far - is really more to sell other GM vehicles than the Bolt. I hope there are some changes to their marketing once it is really available.
This is no change for GM, but what I'm really interested in now is how the other "serious" automakers will react. Obviously Tesla is going forward with their plans for the Model 3; in fact GM's rush with the Bolt is largely to build the GM brand by getting there before Tesla and others. But what about Nissan and BMW?
LEAF and i3 sales are going to have to be affected by the news of a similarly-priced car with twice the range. The LEAF more than the i3, as i3 owners most concerned about range have the REX option, though not all of them want it. Nissan and BMW are clearly going to have to respond. Unlike GM, they care about their current sales, so they are not blasting out their future plans. However, it's clear they are both working on adding range to their cars. When will they actually offer cars with more range - will they wait until the Bolt is out to see how the market responds, or will they respond before it arrives to boost flagging sales and take away GM's thunder? I suspect the key things Nissan and BMW are both watching are sales and battery prices. Nissan also likely doesn't want to add more range until the redesigned 2017 LEAF is available; they are no doubt hurrying to get that out in 2016 as well.
Will BMW and Nissan offer new, longer-range but higher-priced vehicles alongside their current offerings?
I hope so. I can't wait for more choices.