The 2023 Chevrolet Bolt will be the cheapest electric car you can buy in America — with a caveat.
Earlier this week, General Motors (GM) about the price of the 2023 version of the Bolt EV. The base 1LT and better-equipped 2LT models are now priced at $26,595 and $29.795, respectively, which GM says is a $5,900 price cut per model from last year.
The larger Bolt EUV gets an even bigger price cut, at least in nominal terms, of $6,300.
For a regular Bolt EV, that’s a whopping 18.5% price drop from last year, at a time when everything from components to labor costs are skyrocketing in this country.
GM says that even with the steep price cut, no features have been removed or scaled back compared to last year’s model.
“Nothing has been removed,” Shad Balch, who specializes in genetically modified products, told Detroit Free Press. “This reflects our continued desire to ensure that Bolt EV/EUV is competitive in the market. As we have said, affordability has always been a priority for these vehicles.”
Pricing and tax credits
Although prices for 2023 haven’t been announced yet, the 2022 Nissan Leaf, which was the cheapest electric car offered in the US, starts at $27,400. If you don’t include the $7,500 federal tax credit (which Nissan still qualifies, but GM doesn’t), the 2023 Bolt EV is the cheapest car in America.
So technically, the Bolt EV is the cheapest EV in America when it goes on sale in 2023, and it doesn’t include the federal tax credit (which lowers the Nissan Leaf to $19,900). bad news for nissan7201 T) Do you Cumulative Leaf sales in the United States are approximately 175,000 unitsWhen the 200,000 threshold is reached, the federal tax credit is halved.
Also on the downside of the Nissan Leaf is that it only has 149 miles of range (classified by the Environmental Protection Agency), while the cheapest Bolt EV has 259 miles of GM’s. Buyers need to switch to the Nissan Leaf S Plus for 226 miles of range (EPA-rated), but this model starts at $32,400.
The point here is that General Motors is doing what it can to offer an affordable, all-market EV option with a decent electric range for middle-class buyers who want to switch to electric. This is a segment of the market with options scarce, with only the Nissan Leaf S Plus as its only competitor, though Fisker (FSR) promises that his Ocean EV SUV Pricing Starts Under $40,000 When it arrives sometime next year.
If the country will achieve the goal of the White House That 50% of car sales are all-electric By 2030, American buyers will need many cheaper electric vehicle options.
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Bras Subramanian is a Senior Automotive Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. you can follow it Twitter and on Instagram.
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