GM to end production of electric Chevy Bolt, its first mass-market EV, this year
DETROIT — General Motors plans to end production of its electric Chevrolet Bolt models by the end of this year, CEO Mary Barra told investors Tuesday when discussing the company’s first-quarter earnings. The Chevy Bolt EV and EUV, a larger version of the car, make up the vast majority of the company’s electric vehicle sales to date. However, the battery cells in the cars are an older design and chemistry than the automaker’s newer vehicles such as the GMC Hummer and Cadillac Lyriq, which utilize GM’s Ultium architecture. Barra said a suburban Detroit plant that has produced Bolt models since 2016 will be retooled in preparation for production of electric trucks scheduled for next year. There’s irony in the timing of the Bolt getting axed. It comes amid record production and sales of the vehicle for mass-market consumers, which was GM’s initial goal. The company plans to produce more than 70,000 of the vehicles this year, as it targets to sell more than 400,000 EVs from early 2022 ...