GM teases next-gen Chevy Bolt EV: faster charging, multiple models

General Motors teased some new details about the next-generation Chevy Bolt, which is expected to make its official debut later this year as a model year 2026 vehicle.

At an investor event today, GM president Mark Reuss teased the new Bolt during a portion of the event in which the livestream was cut for "confidential" reasons so that the company could show images of the still-unannounced vehicle. But Reuss' presentation could still be heard.

Last year, GM said it was discontinuing Bolt production but later confirmed that it would resurrect the EV as an Ultium vehicle for 2025. (GM's EV powertrain branding is also not long for this world.) The company is now on the cusp of revealing the next-gen Bolt, and Reuss had some new details to share.

The next-gen Bolt will charge faster than the current generation, though Reuss wouldn't say how fast. The current Bolt sips its electrons at a slower rate than most EVs on the market, 50-55kW, and can add up to 100 miles in 30 minutes when plugged into a DC fast charger.

Faster charging would certainly help enhance the next-gen Bolt's image with new EV customers, with whom charging remains a sticking point.

In terms of price, Reuss said we could expect a slightly more expensive next-gen Bolt than the Bolt EUV, which starts at $28,795. "And it will just be one member of a family of Bolts, including an even lower cost option," he said. 

"The 2026 Bolt will offer the same value as the original Bolt and much more, and it will be a moneymaker for us," Reuss said. "Think about that."

It's already been revealed that GM won't be bringing over the original hatchback Bolt to the automaker's Ultium platform, just the larger Bolt EUV. Without the hatchback, it remains to be seen which segment the next-gen low-cost Bolt will occupy.

First introduced in 2016, the Chevy Bolt EV was intended to be the automaker's first stab at a mass-market battery-electric vehicle with 200-plus miles of range and an affordable price tag. The company released a refreshed model as well as a slightly larger EUV version in early 2021.

But thanks to Tesla's dominance in the EV market, sales of the Bolt EV and EUV were pretty anemic for several years. This year has been one of the Bolt's best sales years yet, with record sales in the second quarter across multiple markets.

But now it's making a comeback, and GM is already tooting its own horn. Reuss even included a dig at Ford, which recently created a "skunkworks" lab in Silicon Valley to develop new low-cost EVs. "We do not need to create a skunkworks to create an affordable electric vehicle," he said. "We know how to do this."