Chevy Bolt sales jump 53.7%

The Chevy Bolt is not the most exciting or flamboyant electric car on the market – it’s not a Tesla or the Ford Mustang Mach-E. However, this is the electric vehicle I mostly see on the roads around me, except for all of Tesla’s models. It’s exciting and uplifting to see them, even though the car never puts a tingle in the back of my neck.

One thing the Bolt has in common with the Mach-E is that its sales, whether they like it or not, are pretty weak. That’s not going to change, because it’s a vehicle class that’s just not that popular in America. The good news, though, is that things are looking up for the little Bolt EV.

In the first quarter of 2021, the Chevy Bolt EV’s sales increased by 53.7% compared to sales in the first quarter of 2020. It was the Bolt EV’s best first quarter in history. (Although it is not a very long history, but the Bolt EV wash the first long-distance, semi-affordable electric car on the US market.)

The Bolt EV had 9,025 U.S. sales last year, up from 5,873 sales in the first quarter of 2020. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Bolt EV had only 9,025 U.S. sales last quarter. Multiply that by 4 and you do not even reach 40,000 sales per year. Heck, you do not even reach 37,000 sales a year.

You are not going to reduce emissions enough, GM, with less than 40,000 sales of electric vehicles per year in the 2020s. Tesla likely had more than 22,000 Model 3 sales in the first quarter in the US and 43,000+ Model Y sales in the first quarter here. GM needs to understand why its EV of a similar age is doing so much worse, and how the company can get closer to Tesla’s numbers. The electric revolution is not going to slow down, and a model that is less than 100,000 – let alone less than 40,000 – annual sales will not be seen as a leader for long.

‘What about the Bolt EUV? It’s bigger than the little Bolt EV. “Well, we’ll see. …

Chevy Bolt EUV fleet ready for test drives. Photo by Kyle Field, CleanTechnica.

Chevy Bolt EUV with attractive background. Photo by Kyle Field, CleanTechnica.

Inside a Chevy Bolt EUV. Photo by Kyle Field, CleanTechnica.