Report: GM's new electric car to be Michigan-made
In a sign that it's truly serious about electric cars, General Motors plans to build its new long-range Chevrolet Bolt at a plant north of Detroit, Reuters is reporting, based on two unnamed supplier sources.
The plant would be capable of making 25,000 to 30,000 electric cars a year, the report says.
GM just unveiled a prototype of the Bolt last month at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, saying it would be an all-electric vehicle with 200-mile per charge range that would cost about $30,000. Those characteristics would make it a worthy rival to Tesla since Bolt would appear in showrooms at about the same time and at about the same price as Tesla's planned mass-market Model 3.
"This is no stripped-down science experiment," said GM CEO Mary Barra in introducing Bolt at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last month.
Bolt is not to be confused with the Chevrolet Volt, the brand's plug-in electric car with a backup gas engine. The new version of the Volt will go about 50 miles on a electric power alone, far less range than will be found in the Bolt.
Reuters says the Bolt is expected to go on sale in early 2017. It could also face competition from Nissan and its Leaf. By 2017, the Leaf plug-in could have dramatically better range than the current one.