General Motors announced that the Chevy Bolt EV and EUV, the USA’s most affordable electric vehicles, will be discontinued by the end of the year. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ United Auto Workers president Shawn Fein is blasting a plan by Stellantis to reduce its U.S. workforce by offering cash buyouts to 31,000 hourly and 2,500 salaried workers. More at CNBC.
+ The University of Michigan and state government officials have finalized a contract for a $130 million Electric Vehicle Center that was funded by Michigan lawmakers last year. More at The Detroit News.
+ Shelby American launched its first electric vehicle, the Shelby Mustang Mach-E GT, which features a simulated exhaust sound system and will be marketed only in Euope. More at Car and Driver.
+ World champion Max Verstappen has doubled down on a threat to quit Formula 1 if the series continues to add more events to the calendar and tinker with the event format. More at Racer.
+ Geely’s Zeekr EV unit in China is the latest to join a growing list of automakers adopting the gigapress die-casting technique pioneered by Tesla to reduce manufacturing costs. More at Reuters.
+ Nearly one in five cars sold globally this year will be electric as EVs become more affordable, said director Fatih Birol of the International Energy Agency (IEA) on a media call. More at World Auto Forum.
+ CadMad, the radically customized 1959 Cadillac Eldorado that cost $2.3 million to build and won the 2019 Ridler Award, will be offered at the Mecum Indy auction in May. More at Old Cars.
+ General Motors announced that the Chevy Bolt EV and EUV will be discontinued by the end of the year to make way at the Lake Orion, Michigan plant for upcoming models. More at InsideEVs.
+ CEO Toshihiro Mibe says Honda will push forward with a mid-to-large EV crossover on the company’s own platform and send it to showrooms in 2025, a year earlier than planned. More at Autoblog.
+ Penske Corporation president Bud Denker dismissed rumors that Liberty Media, the owner of Formula 1, could acquire the IndyCar series, asserting that it’s not for sale. More at Yahoo! Sports.
Photo courtesy of Chevrolet.
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Shame about the Bolt, it was the top-selling EV from a legacy automaker and I expect its’ loss (along with the pending phaseout of the Nissan Leaf) will slow EV adoption.
It’s still very much an early-adopter market and the small-car form factors aren’t as much of an obstacle to them as they are for the average new-car buyer, and on top of that there’s a huge soon-to-be-untapped market of multicar households for whom a $40k-plus midsize crossover (the most crowded part of the EV market) would necessarily be the “big/nice” car used on road trips, adding more friction to electrification where a Bolt would slot in nicely as a commuter/second car.
That’s in addition to the people who’ll be priced out of the market entirely, of course.
Great read of the situation. Thanks for the input.
Let the market decide. If EV’s have a future, it should be because consumers want them, not because of government edicts. I was priced out of the market of new vehicles long ago.
Well, consumers want them – there’s a waiting list – but the company doesn’t want to make them.
People are too afraid of “government edicts” to see how they’ve been social-engineered by corporations into the highest-margin vehicles (it’s always Truck Month somewhere…)