With Silverado EV delayed, GM should extend the life of the Bolt

Published

1 year ago

October 19, 2023

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buy-chevy-bolt-ev — Chevy Bolt EUV Redline Edition (Source: GM)

This week, GM said it’s pushing back Silverado EV production by a year; which gives it a perfect opportunity to extend the life of the Bolt in its best year of sales yet.

The announcement came Tuesday, with GM stating that planned production of the Silverado EV would be delayed by a full year “to better manage capital investment while aligning with evolving EV demand.”

The story suggests that GM isn’t sure about EV truck demand, seeing that Ford recently cut a shift from its F-150 Lightning production plant.

However, Rivian is still growing quickly and beating expectations, so maybe there’s another underlying problem for incumbent automakers. Also, GM and Ford are both currently facing a strike from UAW, which may continue if automakers remain hesitant to offer workers a fair deal.

But what does all this have to do with the Bolt, you ask?

Well, the Bolt is produced in the same plant, GM’s Orion Assembly in Lake Orion, Michigan, that GM had planned to produce the SIlverado EV in. That’s why the Bolt is going out of production – to make room for new lines that incorporate GM’s new Ultium battery platform, which the Bolt doesn’t use as it predates that platform. Since the Bolt is on old technology, GM plans to retire it (though after much urging, GM said it would make an Ultium-based Bolt).

But the Bolt is also having its best year yet, already having sold a record number of cars this year with another quarter yet to go. And despite higher production than ever, it’s still sold out everywhere, because it’s a fantastic deal at a base MSRP of $26k. It is also good enough to win Electrek’s Vehicle of the Year award in this last year of its existence.

So it was good news when GM decided to continue production through December, but now that the plant won’t be upgraded for another year, why not extend it even longer?

Surely tooling for the Silverado will take some time so GM won’t get a full extra year of production out of the Bolt, but they’ve already got the lines running for the Bolt, so why not keep them running for a few months longer? And let a few tens of thousands of EV fans get access to a great deal on a car that’s been hard to find all year.

This would require a lot of coordination with suppliers on GM’s part, who have already extended a date once. So it’s not as easy as just continuing to run the lines, but we still think there’s a valuable end goal here, in letting more people get access to a great car and showing how great and affordable EVs can be.

We’d love to see more Bolts out there, both because it’s a great car (though with the one major downside of slow 50kW DC charging) and because it’s a fantastic deal. And if GM did continue production through next year, that deal would be even better given the planned improvement to the Federal EV tax credit.

Next year, the credit will be available upfront at the point-of-sale, which means buyers won’t have to wait until filing their taxes to get the refund anymore. It also means that low- and middle-income buyers can benefit from the full credit, instead of having that amount reduced if they don’t have $7,500 in total tax liability.

Both of these aspects would combine to make the Bolt, currently the most affordable EV and one of the most affordable new cars of any type on the road, an even more fantastic deal for more people. If new Bolts were still available in 2024 at a starting price of ~$19k (and even less after some state rebates), it would really make a statement about the affordability of EVs in general.

And so, we think this is an excellent chance for GM to extend the life of the best deal in EVs (and, honestly, in the whole auto industry), and their best-selling EV, in its best-selling year, going into a time that would be particularly advantageous for a value EV, in a plant that it doesn’t seem like it will be using anyway. Pretty please, GM?

If you’re looking to take advantage of the best deal in EVs right now before it goes out of production (though we hope it doesn’t…), you can use our links to contact your local dealers about the 2023 Chevy Bolt EV or 2023 Chevy Bolt EUV, and see if they have any left in stock.

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

Published

5 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!

Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.

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Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonusLucid proves than an EV company can keep its promises while Xiaomi teams up with Chevrolet and Honda to prove – at least conceptually – that records are made to be broken. audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news!

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Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show!

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Environment

This ‘supercharger on wheels’ brings fast charging to you [update]

Published

6 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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This 'supercharger on wheels' brings fast charging to you [update]

Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”

November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).

It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.

Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”

May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.

“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.

The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)

Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)

Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.

The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.

To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.

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Marqeta shares plunge more than 30% on big forecast miss

Published

7 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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Marqeta shares plunge more than 30% on big forecast miss

Marqeta celebrates its initial public offering at the Nasdaq on June 9, 2021.

Source: The Nasdaq

Marqeta shares tumbled more than 30% in extended trading on Monday after the company issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter.

Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Loss per share: 6 cents adjusted vs. a loss of 5 cents expected
Revenue: $128 million vs. $128.1 million expected

While third-quarter results showed a slight disappointment on the top and bottom lines, Marqeta’s forecast for the current period was more concerning.

The payment processing firm said revenue in the fourth quarter will increase 10% to 12% from a year earlier. Analysts were looking for growth of more than 17%, according to LSEG.

Marqeta, which primarily functions as a card-issuing platform, attributed the guidance miss to “heightened scrutiny of the banking environment and specific customer program changes.” The company has been struggling for a while, and its stock is now down more than 80% from its peak in 2021, the year it went public. The stock was down 15% for the year prior to the report.

Total processing volume of $74 billion was up more than 30% from a year earlier. Net revenue and gross profit were up 18% and 24%, respectively.

Marqeta’s digital commerce business sells payment technology designed to detect potential fraud and ensure that money is properly routed. It also issues customized physical cards that look like a credit or debit card that can be used for point-of-sale purchases.

The company has been trying to break into the buy now, pay later business with a recently launched product called Marqeta Flex. The service brings BNPL from lenders such as Affirm or Klarna to any credit card wherever Mastercard and Visa are accepted.

“It’s an orchestration layer, but it’s tied to issuing and processing and disputes and chargebacks,” CEO Simon Khalaf told CNBC at Money2020 in Las Vegas last week. “So it is not actually a Wild West in BNPL. It is actually very well established. And there is a reason why a lot of people are jumping to it.”