By Heather Listhartke
When you think about all-electric cars, the first vehicle to come to mind might be the long-awaited Tesla 3 that has been hyped up for most of the year or you might think of the Nissan Leaf and the news that Nissan will release a new version of their car that will have the 200-mile range. What you may not know is that Chevrolet has quietly come onto the electric car scene with their Chevrolet Bolt.
Before now the big options for all-electric vehicles were the expensive Tesla Model S which has a 300-mile charge but costs $70,000 or the Nissan Leaf which is much more reasonable costing about $30,000 but only gets about 80 miles per charge. Nissan and Tesla both announced quite some time ago that in 2017 they would be starting production on their new versions of the all-electric cars with both ranging in the $30,000 range with about 200 miles per change. General Motors, however, said let’s beat that and in 2015 announced their concept car with the same price tag and 200-mile range and a promise to start releasing at the end of 2016. Already the Bolt is available in certain show rooms and will be widely available (unlike the Tesla which has almost a 2-year waiting list). The release for the 2017 line means that it makes the short list of finalists for the 2017 Green Car of the Year. Last year, Chevrolet won with the 2016 Chevy Volt, so winning this year would make it a back to back win for them. The award will be announced on November 17th, so we will see soon.
Journalists from The Verge and Wired were given the opportunity to test drive the vehicle before production release, and they were amazed with the power of the vehicle and just how much it drove like any other car. Both were pleased with the acceleration, which has the availability to go from 0 to 60 in about 7 seconds, and the higher than expected mileage. Everyone who got to test The Chevy Bolt were able to drive more than 235 miles with more to go before they would run out of juice. Additionally, the car has standard safety features including sensors and cameras everywhere for alerts and emergency braking to protect you to the fullest as well as airbags and a high-strength frame. GM designed this to give you everything you could want without sacrificing the things that you need for safety.
The technology of The Bolt is also a very attractive feature of this car. The dash has a 10.2″ touchscreen with space made to hold and charge an iPhone 6, but also adapts to Android technology. It also has space in the console to hold a tablet, and has WiFi available. The rearview mirror shows displays from cameras on the rear of the car giving you full surround vision to eliminate those blind spots. One of the neatest features of The Bolt is that it has settings based upon which key is being used when driving the car, meaning it tunes to the appropriate music setting whether it’s you driving or someone else. Add the roomy nature of the hatchback, the great price point, and the longest range available widely on the market, the Chevy Bolt is just a great option for everyday enjoyable driving.
If you want to know more about the Chevy Bolt and how electric cars work in general, visit Chevrolet’s guide to the Bolt.
And visit Walker Chevrolet in Franklin at 3940 Carothers Pkwy, Franklin, TN 37067.
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