General Motors, like most other automakers, is focused on transitioning operations to facilitate the rise of electric vehicles. But it looks like the Chevy Bolt won’t be a part of those long-term plans.
According to CNBC, the company today said it plans to wind down production on the Chevy Bolt by the end of this year. CEO Mary Barra said a GM plant near Detroit that has been building Bolts since 2016 will be “retooled” for producing electric trucks.
The announcement today makes official the reports from last year that spelled doom for the Bolt, one of the industry’s longest-running EV brands. As CNN pointed out in January 2022, GM announced plans to build electric trucks in the Bolt’s home in Orion Township, Michigan but didn’t share any plans to move Bolt production to a different facility.
The Bolt’s imminent demise comes as the EV is still powering a large portion of GM’s EV sales. The company today said it sold more than 20,000 EVs in the U.S. during the first quarter thanks to the third consecutive quarter of record Bolt EV and Bolt EUV deliveries. Those numbers were enough to push GM up to second place in the domestic EV marketplace behind Tesla.
But the GM looks like it will rely on other EV models like the Cadillac LYRIQ and the upcoming electric Chevy Silverado to continue growing EV sales. The company this year will also launch EV versions of Chevy Blazer and Equinox along with the GMC Sierra.
GM plans to produce 400,000 EVs over the course of 2022, 2023 and the first half of 2024, including 50,000 EVs in North America in the first half of this year, and double that in the second half.