With an excellent base price and an impressive 238 miles (383 km) of all-electric range, one would think that people would be falling over themselves in order to purchase a Chevrolet Bolt.
Alas, that hasn’t been the case. Plus, with the arrival of Tesla’s new Model 3, it’s very unlikely that the Bolt will get some type of “second wind” and start attracting customers in droves.
So what went wrong? Well, according to automotive journalist Doug DeMuro, the Bolt’s main problem is that big old emblem on its front grille. In other words, Chevrolet isn’t nearly as trendy as Tesla when it comes to electric vehicles.
Still, a close look at its features shows that the Bolt is quite a clever little thing, easy to operate and configure via the central touchscreen display. There are a few quirks though, like the chime volume, the hatchback-mounted brake lights or the complex gear selector, which is actually very similar to how BMW does it.
On the road, DeMuro found the Bolt to be surprisingly fast, with decent handling and visibility. In the end, he went as far as to call it “really, really, really competent”.