The 2027 Chevrolet Bolt is a massive leap over its predecessor. It comes with more driving range, adopts a Tesla-style charging port and perhaps most importantly, it can finally now fast-charge at respectable speeds. That means road trips will be a whole lot less painful, and your hair won’t turn gray while it’s plugged in.
During a media briefing with reporters on Thursday, Chevrolet shared how it improved the Bolt’s charging performance.
With a maximum charging speed of just 50 kilowatts, the old Bolt took more than one hour to fully charge when plugged into a DC fast charger. The new Bolt now shares its internals with larger General Motors siblings such as the Equinox EV, which means its peak charging speed has increased 2.5 times to 150 kW. That also matches the new Nissan Leaf and the Ford Mustang Mach-E. It’s also better than the Hyundai Kona Electric and the Kia Niro EV, which are still limited to a peak of 100 kW.
The previous Bolt EUV was popular for its relatively low purchase price, compact size and 247 miles of range. But its subpar charging speeds meant road-tripping was a pain with long charging stops, which made it primarily a city car and less of a long-distance companion. The lack of preconditioning meant charging in the dead of winter took even longer.
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Source: Chevrolet
“It used to be known as a commuter car. Now it’s a bona fide road trip vehicle,” Bolt’s Chief Engineer Jeremy Short said in Thursday’s media briefing.
While range has only increased marginally, from an EPA-estimated 247 miles to GM-estimated 255 miles, the charging time is down to 26 minutes for a 10-80% top-up. It’s also the first Chevrolet EV with the Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) port baked in from the factory, meaning seamless access to tens of thousands of Superchargers nationwide.
Photo by: Chevrolet
Owners will have to separately purchase CCS to NACS adapters if they want to charge at non-Tesla networks like Electrify America, ChargePoint, etc. Plug and charge—the ability to just plug the cable into the charging port and walk away without manually activating the session—will also improve the charging experience.
At launch, only select GM Energy-EVgo stations will have that capability, but plug and charge at Tesla Superchargers and several other networks will come soon, a Chevrolet spokesperson said.
Getting to this point was not easy. The company conducted four development cycles with the new Bolt, each covering 3,000 miles between Michigan and California, across hot and dry conditions for testing and validation. That included 117 charging sessions over nine different networks.
After all that driving, the average consumption was 3.1 miles per kilowatt-hour, the company said.
Photo by: Chevrolet
There are many more improvements beyond just faster charging speeds. Even though the Bolt looks similar to its predecessor, the upgrades are extensive underneath. More than 50% of the components are new or modified. “In the interest of bringing the Bolt back quickly, we kept the structural steel components and the sheet metal the same,” Short said.
Still, he added that it’s pretty much a new car underneath. The new components include the X76 electric drive unit, new 65-kilowatt-hour lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery, new brake modules, as well as the Global B electrical architecture, which GM also calls its Vehicle Intelligence Platform (VIP) for functions such as faster over-the-air upgrades.
However, some of the visual similarity and carryover chassis components likely helped GM keep costs low—the Bolt starts at just $29,990 at launch, including destination, making it America’s cheapest new EV.
Photo by: Chevrolet
Inside, it also gets a large 11-inch gauge cluster, along with an 11.3-inch infotainment with Google built in. Even though Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are missing, as on other GM EVs, InsideEVs testing found that the native Google system is quite capable. The native Google Maps will show charging stations along the route and will also work seamlessly with the available hands-free Super Cruise.
When the new Bolt goes on sale in January 2027, its main competitor will be the Nissan Leaf, which is also very capable and priced competitively, starting at $31,485 with destination. But other than the Leaf, the new Bolt won’t have much competition at launch. It should be uniquely positioned to help GM’s EV business thrive as the $7,500 federal tax credit is now dead.
However, buyers may have to move fast because GM also said that the new Bolt will be a “limited run” model only, despite the company saying that it doesn’t have any production constraints. So if you were waiting for it, you may want to act sooner rather than later.
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