General Motors opened the curtain concealing the battery pack and drivetrain of the upcoming Chevrolet Bolt EV (details), which will be launched in little more than half a year.
With the help of LG Chem, GM managed to quickly develop a long-range, appealing electric car with decent performance in an affordable price-range.
Prior to the Bolt EV's introduction, there simply will not be any electric model with comparable specs. A 60 kWh battery, over 200 miles of expected EPA range and price from $37,500 prior incentives.
Sure the Tesla Model 3 is coming, in late 2017, but even at that volume production is far from assured from launch...it took some ~6 months to scale up the Model X, and that was a vehicle primarily based on the existing Model S.
Outside of unknown Nissan plans with the second generation LEAF in 2017, the Bolt EV may be the only available option for inexpensive long range driving for up to 2 years.
The Bolt EV's battery pack stores around three times more energy than in Spark EV, but the weight has pnly increased two times. The whole battery configuration is also flat and packed tight - a first for GM (see photo below).
Battery stats:
- 60 kWh of energy for over 200 miles EPA range
- battery weight 436 kg
- 160 kW power output
- 288 lithium-ion cells (LG Chem)
- 350 V nominal voltage
- eight years or 100,000 miles battery warranty
- DC fast charging capability (at least 50 kW - we don't know yet for sure whether GM will enable higher power charging if there will be higher power chargers)
A similar presentation of the battery was also promoted for the drive unit by GM, with a permanent-magnet electric motor, which at 150 kW of peak power will be the best in class.
The electric motor was engineered by General Motors, but as is found with most of the critical e-drivetrain stuff in the Bolt EV, production itself was shifted to LG.
According to a CNET article, the Bolt EV motor has nearly twice the rpm speed (8,810 rpm vs. 4,500) and twice the higher final drive ratio (7.05:1 vs. 3.87:1) than the Spark EV, which helped to lower the size and weight.
Specs:
- 150 kW peak power
- 360 Nm peak torque
- 8,810 max rpm
- 7.05:1 gear ratio
- total weight of 76 kg
- 0-60 mph in less than 7 seconds
- 0-30 mph in 2.9 seconds
- 30% grade launch possible (28% in case of Spark EV)
source: CNET